KANSAS CITY, Mo.—South Dakota senior setter Brittany Jessen became the second Coyote in program history and the 10^th player in Summit League history to record 4,000 career assists as the Coyotes took on Kansas City and UNI on day one of the Kangaroo Klassic Friday. South Dakota (3-5) downed Kansas City 3-2 before falling to UNI 3-1. Jessen reached the milestone in a 48-assist effort against UNI and has 4,027 assists in three-plus seasons at USD.
 
"This is an exciting milestone, but I owe it all to my teammates for making this possible," Jessen said. "I attribute a lot of the success to our defense for keeping the ball alive and our hitting for doing great things with the ball."

"Britt reaching her 4,000 assist milestone just shows that she is one of the best setters to ever play here." Head Coach Leanne Williamson said. "We are excited to see what else she can accomplish this year."
 
South Dakota's match against Kansas City (2-5) was its first five-set match of the season. The Coyotes trailed two sets to one and were down 23-19 in set four before rallying for a 27-25 win to force a decisive fifth set. The Yotes scored the final five points in winning set five 15-9.
 
Rachel Schmidt had a season-high 25 kills and hit .327 to pace South Dakota. Middle blocker Kelly Law made her first appearance since going down with an injury in the middle of last season and recorded six kills and six block assists. Elizabeth Loschen added nine kills and four block assists.

"Kelly Law returned to action today and she had a great two matches," Williamson said. "I was happy to see her have so much success on her first day back."
 
The Coyotes had three players in double digits for digs in game one. Libero Anne Rasmussen led the Coyotes with 19 digs with Jessen adding 13 and Mehana Fonseca contributing 11. Jessen had a season-high 49 assists against the Kangaroos.

"The match against UMKC was a good one to get our first five-set win," Williamson said. "We did not start out strong, but the determination that the team showed when we were down 18-23 in set four proved that we have the ability to create big runs."
 
Alicia Harrington recorded a double-double for the Kangaroos with 18 kills and 20 digs. Mykal Sadler recorded 17 kills while Emma Dyer added 12 more. The Kangaroos had three players in addition to Harrington in double digits for digs. Alex Ratzlaff had 16 digs, Rhegan Spiegel recorded 14 and Alli Schomers added 12 for the Kangaroos.
 
USD nearly duplicated its effort against UNI, a team with two top-25 wins to its credit in 2017. The Panthers (7-2) won the first two sets, but South Dakota took set three 27-25 and was tied 24-all in set four before UNI notched the final two points.

"UNI is one of the top teams in the country and one of the top teams defensively," Williamson said. "On our side of the net, we had great defensive mentality to keep the ball alive and extend the rally. I was happy to see our offense come alive against a good team."
 
Hayley Dotseth recorded a double-double against the Panthers with 15 kills and 19 digs. Schmidt added 16 kills to her tally and has an even 100 kills thru eight matches on the season. Meagan Kerns added 12 kills. On the defensive end, Rasmussen recorded 28 digs with Fonseca adding 15 and Jessen contributing 12.
 
Eighteen was the magic number for the Panthers as Bri Weber, Karlie Taylor, and Piper Thomas all recorded 18 kills. Weber and Taylor added 19 and 17 digs, respectively, to get double doubles.
 
South Dakota finishes play at the tournament at 11 a.m. Saturday against Rutgers.