VERMILLION, S.D. – A balanced offensive attack ushered South Dakota to yet another Summit League volleyball sweep on Sunday afternoon inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
The Coyotes, registering their eighth sweep in the last nine matches, had four players with eight or more kills in the regular season finale, a 25-18, 25-18, 25-17 victory over North Dakota State.
Celebrating Senior Day, as five South Dakota seniors were honored prior to the match, senior
Hayley Dotseth led the offense with 12 kills for a team that had a .259 hitting percentage in the match.
Claire Gerdes and
Elizabeth Loschen had nine kills each while
Taylor Wilson chipped in eight as the Coyotes closed the regular season with a 19-9 overall mark and finished second in the Summit League at 13-3.
"You have four of us with over eight kills," Dotseth said. "(Madison) Jurgens does a really good job of moving the ball around and our passing has been good.
"For the past month and a half that's been a huge part of our success in just being able to give Jurgens good balls and her being able to move the ball around."
Jurgens finished with 37 assists, two kills and seven digs while tough serving also played a big part in the victory.
Dotseth came within one ace of equaling the school record in a three-set match as she finished with six of the team's nine service aces. Five of those aces came in the opening set as the Coyotes, bucking a recent trend of slow starts, bolted out of the gates taking a 17-4 lead that eventually led to a 25-18 win.
Anne Rasmussen had 17 digs and Dotseth nine for a South Dakota team that will be the No. 2 seed in next weekend's Summit League tourney in Denver. The Coyotes receive a first-round bye and will play its first match at 7 p.m. in Saturday's semifinals.
"We just talked about wanting to play our best volleyball at the end of the season and I think that's 100 percent true for us," said Dotseth. "Our confidence is really high right now going into the conference tourney, that's huge for us."
