VERMILLION, S.D. — South Dakota kept the momentum late in Friday's Summit League home opener and downed Purdue Fort Wayne 25-20, 19-25, 24-26, 25-22, 15-9 in a five-set thriller inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
 
The Coyotes, trailing 2-1 in sets, pulled out a tense fourth game and rode that strong finish into the fifth game that they never trailed in.
 
"We feel like we have learned from a couple of our five set matches in the past," said coach Leanne Williamson. "They really went after it from point one with the intent to score points and defend our home floor."
 
South Dakota didn't waiver, despite seeing a late lead in game three slip away, coming right back to claim games four and five and remain unbeaten in Summit League play at 3-0.
 
"I actually thought games one through four went back and forth a little bit," Williamson said. "We never got our full momentum going.
 
"Credit to Fort Wayne, they played a great match, especially defensively, they made us earn a lot of points."
 
Hayley Dotseth and Taylor Wilson contributed 16 kills apiece while Elizabeth Loschen tallied 14 and Lolo Weideman seven for a Coyote team that fashioned 10 kills and only one error for a .346 hitting percentage in the fifth set.
 
South Dakota, now 9-6 overall, is 4-0 at home this season and 22-3 all-time inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.
 
"That fifth set, when you talk about defending our home floor, the girls came out ready to go that," said Williamson. "You finish with 10 kills, one error, hit .346 and side it out at an extremely high rate, that's the difference in the set."
 
Madison Jurgens provided 51 assists and 16 digs in the match while Dotseth added 18 digs to complement the play of libero Anne Rasmussen with 26 digs and Lauren Sauer with 15.
 
Mehana Fonseca had four of the Coyotes' eight service aces in a match that lasted two hours and 17 minutes.
 
South Dakota hosts Western Illinois on Sunday at 2 p.m.