MILWAUKEE, Wis. — South Dakota volleyball coach
Leanne Williamson was victorious in her return to her alma mater.
The Coyotes finished off a split of two matches on the season's first day with a three-game sweep over Milwaukee, 25-14, 25-15, 25-16, a place Williamson starred as a collegiate player.
South Dakota opened the season earlier Friday morning with a 3-1 setback to Northwestern of the Big Ten, falling 25-16, 20-25, 25-20, 25-20.
"Today was a good day for us," Williamson said. "We started by opening with Northwestern. I think we saw the potential that we had, but we didn't do it consistently enough to pull out the win."
Hayley Dotseth, last year's season kills leader, hammered home 13 kills and the senior also added nine digs in the match. Senior
Kristina Susak closed out the match with a kill as South Dakota posted a team hitting percentage of .224 in the victory.
A strong blocking presence at the net by the Coyotes forced Milwaukee into hitting just .027 in the match. South Dakota had three solo blocks and 16 block assists, led by redshirt freshman
Emily Grathoff, who had two solo and three assists, in the match.
"Going into Milwaukee, our team was extremely focused and ready to raise our level of play," Williamson said. "The thing that surprised us a little was how good we were blocking. This has not always been a strength of ours, so it was nice to see us score as many points as we did with our block.
"Our serving also raised our level of play so we were able to score a lot of transition points. We will continue to talk about growing as a team each day with the amount of young talent that we have on the floor, and we saw that even from match one to match two today."
The Coyotes registered 10 service aces in the win over Milwaukee, led by
Mehana Fonseca and Jurgens with three apiece. Fonseca and Dotseth had two aces each in the match against Northwestern.
Taylor Wilson, a 6-0 senior, had a strong day for South Dakota as she had seven kills and a .462 hitting percentage in the win over the Panthers. That after registering a 10-kill outing with just one error and a .474 hitting percentage in the loss to Northwestern.
Freshman
Jenna Wagemester and junior
Elizabeth Loschen added six kills apiece in the offensive attack directed by redshirt freshman setter
Madison Jurgens, who had 32 assists.
Defensively, the Coyotes were paced by libero
Anne Rasmussen with 17 digs and
Lauren Sauer with 11.
Milwaukee, coached by 12-year veteran Susie Johnson, who began her head coaching career at the school in 2007, Williamson's senior year, fell to 0-2 on the season after dropping a four-set match with New Hampshire.
South Dakota closes out its season-opening weekend with Saturday's noon contest against New Hampshire.
Dotseth had nine kills and Loschen eight in the match with Northwestern. Jurgens provided 30 assists and seven digs. Four Coyotes registered double-digits in digs as Rasmussen had 19, Sauer and Dotseth 12 apiece and Fonseca 11.
Northwestern, the lone 2-0 team on the opening day after a win over New Hampshire, was paced by Abryanna Cannon with 16 kills, Nia Robinson with 13 and Ella Grbac with 10.
