VERMILLION, S.D. — South Dakota's volleyball team showed strong resiliency Saturday inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
 
The Coyotes pulled out a tough four-set win over Northern Colorado, 25-15, 17-25, 25-22, 26-24 to win the South Dakota Classic with a 3-0 record.
 
South Dakota, now 5-1, rallied from a 23-22 deficit in game four and avoid a fifth set after the fourth was tied at 24-24 by closing out the match with a kill from Hayley Dotseth and a combined block form Elizabeth Loschen and Taylor Wilson.
 
"Northern Colorado is a very, very good team and they challenged us in ways we hadn't seen this weekend," Coach Leanne Williamson said. "It says a lot about our team to come back in (games) three and four to pull it out."
 
Hayley Dotseth was named tournament MVP after recording her second straight 18-kill match and finishing the three match event with 48 kills or 4.36 kills per set.
 
Joining Dotseth, a senior, on the all-tournament team from South Dakota were senior Taylor Wilson and junior Anne Rasmussen. While Dotseth led the tournament in kills and kills per set, Wilson ranked second in hitting percentage at .412, finishing with 34 kills and just six errors. Rasmussen, meanwhile, paced the four-team event with 5.91 digs per set.
 
Kristina Susak reached double digits in kills for the second straight match with 12 and the senior finished with 25 in the three matches over the two days.
 
Madison Jurgens dished 42 assists to finish the tournament with 115, a 10.45 assist per set average and the redshirt freshman was also just under one kill per set in the tournament.
 
Rasmussen had 27 digs, Dotseth 17 and Lauren Sauer 11 in a match that saw Sauer move over the 1,000 career dig mark.
 
For the tournament Loschen chipped in 21 kills while Emily Grathoff led the event with a 0.86 block per set average.
"Going 3-0 on our home floor is one of the greatest things," Williamson said. "It's our first time hosting a tournament and to be able to pull off that sweep is incredible for our program.
 
"We knew putting this tournament together it was going to be tough. Al the teams have had a lot of success in the past. We put something together for not only ourselves but our fans to come out and have those three matches and finish that way is huge for us."

2018 South Dakota Classic All-Tournament Team
Hayley Dotseth, South Dakota, MVP
Kortney Lockey, Northern Colorado
Mima Mirkovic, California
Taylor Wilson, South Dakota
Preslie Anderson, California
Anne Rasmussen, South Dakota
Gabrielle Eyl, Northeastern
 
South Dakota Classic Team Results
1. South Dakota, 3-0
2. California, 2-1
3. Northern Colorado, 1-2
4. Northeastern, 0-3