VERMILLION, S.D. – Taylor Wilson had the hot hand on Friday evening inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center as South Dakota posted a Summit League volleyball sweep over North Dakota, 25-23, 25-16, 25-20.
 
Wilson, a senior, posted a career-high in a three-set match with 18 kills to go with a .467 hitting percentage as the Coyotes overcame a slow start to the match and closed strong in each set to improve to 18-9 overall and 12-3 in the Summit. Wilson's 18 kills were one shy of her overall career high of 19 set against North Dakota State earlier this season.
 
"Taylor was incredible tonight," Coach Leanne Williamson said. "She had 18 kills and hit over .450, that's just unheard of. She was able to spark our team a lot of times to get big kills for us to end long rallies.
 
"That's also a testament to Madison Jurgens setting our hitters up for success."
 
Jurgens, a redshirt freshman, had 34 assists in the match and moved over the 1,000 assist mark for the season, becoming just the 12^th in Coyotes history to reach that mark in a career.
 
South Dakota trailed in set one 22-17 before closing the set on a 8-1 run behind a seven-point service run from freshman Lolo Weideman and a kill from Jurgens to finish it.
 
"I thought we started slow, we didn't take care of or side of the net as well," said Williamson. "Defensively we made some plays but we didn't execute on the offensive side.
 
"For us to come back we really needed that one run from Lolo and big plays from Anne to be able to finish it off."
 
Rasmussen, who had six of her 20 digs in the contest in set one, was integral again in a long closing run to win set two.
 
The second set was tied at 15-15 before the hosts closed on a 10-1 spurt with Anne Rasmussen serving out the final six points. The final run, which started with the score 19-16, began with a service ace, included a pair of kills each from Wilson and Elizabeth Loschen and ended with an attack error from North Dakota.
 
Hayley Dotseth added 11 kills and 12 digs while Loschen finished with eight kills and Claire Gerdes seven. Weideman contributed nine digs, Jurgens eight and Mehana Fonseca seven.
 
The Coyotes, who have clinched the No. 2 seed in next week's Summit League tourney, close the regular season at home on Sunday against North Dakota State. It's senior day as the team will honor five seniors prior to the match.
 
"It's actually something we have talked about, let's not make it bigger than it is," said Williamson. "Let's not let the emotions get over us. Our seniors have done a lot for this program, they have earned that right to play for the second seed and something that we'll continue to do on Sunday."
 
North Dakota, closing the regular season at 14-17 overall and 6-9 in the Summit League, was led by Taliyah Flores, the team's starting libero the first 26 matches, turned outside hitter recently with eight kills. Roosa Rautio had 24 assists and Alivia Fraase, returning to the starting libero position she held last season, had 22 digs.