University of South Dakota Athletics

VERMILLION, S.D. – A little déjà vu.
 
South Dakota turned the tables on Denver with a reverse sweep on Thursday evening inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center, 17-25, 25-27, 25-19, 27-25, 15-10.
 
It was a mirror image of the team's first meeting of the season in Denver, when the Coyotes won the first two sets, only to suffer a five-set loss.
 
South Dakota, improving to 16-8 overall with its sixth-straight victory, maintained control of its own destiny in the hunt for the Summit League regular season title by moving to 13-2 in Summit League play.
 
"I feel like I'm a little speechless after that match," coach Leanne Williamson said. "That was an incredible journey."
 
"It was absolutely a team win."
 
The victory sets up a first-place showdown on Sunday, on Senior Day, as Omaha (14-1 in Summit) comes to the Sanford Coyote Sports Center for a 3 p.m. first serve.
 
"Yeah, I think it's really exciting that it's Omaha, on senior night," said fifth-year senior Sami Slaughter, who had a match-high 19 kills. "They're a very good competitive team. That's what raises our level is when we play high competitive teams.
 
"This match was very gritty tonight and I think that we can take that into the next match."
 
Slaughter had four kills in the decisive fifth set, a set that saw six ties and one lead change as the Coyotes pulled away from a 6-6 tie to win the set 15-10. Slaughter's .390 hitting percentage in the match was a season high.
 
Elizabeth Juhnke had 17 kills and hit .438 while Madison Harms, Maddie Wiedenfeld and Aimee Adams all had seven kills each. The Coyotes took 33 less attack swings than the Pioneers, but for the sixth-straight match hit over .300, finishing at .369.
 
Madison Jurgens contributed 46 assists, 11 digs, three kills and one ace in a match that didn't have a high volume of rallies. Lolo Weideman had 13 digs and four assists and four aces while Juhnke posted her 12^th double-double of the season adding 13 digs.
 
"It took a lot of grit and determination and just fight form our team, which not that we haven't seen it, but I just feel like it's been a little bit since we really saw that level of it," said Williamson. "I would love to have part of that match back.
 
"I just feel like we played a little bit more of not to lose rather than to win, and it showed."
 
South Dakota hit .438 in set one, but Denver's six service aces proved to be the difference in a set that saw the visitors close on an 8-1 run.
 
The Coyotes hit just .171 in the second set, but was still in position to even the match only to see Denver stave off seven set points and pull out a 27-25 win.
 
"They came out with just a difference in intensity to them (in set three)," said Williamson. "I do think, you know, it was very similar to kind of how the match went at Denver. It kind of flipped today (between sets two and three) and had a lot more success from the service line getting them out of system.
 
"They're very, very good when they are in system."
 
South Dakota broke away from a 16-15 edge in set three to claim a 25-19 victory.
 
The Coyotes evened the match with a victory in set four, but not before facing some adversity similar to the Summit League championship match from last April in Sioux Falls. With the score 24-22, South Dakota appeared to have won the point on an error from Denver, only to see the point challenged the score reversed to 24-23. Denver, tough, never got a match point, despite staving off five more set points before South Dakota claimed the set 27-25, snapping a 25-25 tie with a Juhnke kill and a Pioneers attack error.
 
South Dakota hit .818 in the fifth set with nine kills and no errors on 11 swings. Juhnke also had four kills in set five and put down points 12, 14 and 15 to close out the match.
 
"We do get to control our own destiny in some ways," said Williamson. "Now, this sets up a really good match on Sunday for us."