FIRST SERVE
The South Dakota Coyotes (13-8, 10-2) hit the road for Thursday's 7 p.m. match at Western Illinois (4-20, 3-10).

THE COYOTES
South Dakota sits tied with Denver for second place in the Summit League, one game behind Omaha, with three weeks remaining in the regular season.
Elizabeth Juhnke, who has reached double figures in kills in all but one match, leads the offensive attack at 3.64 kills per set. The junior averages 3.89 kills per set in league play while her 189 total kills in league play are most in the Summit.
Senior Sami Slaughter averages 2.52 kills per set while junior Madison Harms contributes 2.46 kills per set for a team that is averaging 12.78 kills per set while posting a .245 attack percentage in all matches.
Aimee Adams, a junior, adds 1.94 kills per set and senior Maddie Wiedenfeld 1.68 for an offense directed by senior setter Madison Jurgens who is at 10.11 assists per set. 
South Dakota leads the Summit League in blocks per set (2.42) as Harms, who leads the Summit League in solo blocks with 20, is tied with Oral Roberts' Sakira LaCour for the league lead at 1.33 blocks per set. 
Harms also ranks second in the Summit League and 32nd nationally in hitting percentage at .393 while Wiedenfeld is seventh in the league at .318. 
Defensively, senior libero Lolo Weideman is averaging 4.49 digs per set while Juhnke is at 2.95 and Jurgens 1.94. 

LAST TIME OUT
South Dakota avenged one of its two Summit League losses by downing Oral Roberts at home in four sets.
Juhnke had four-set season highs of 22 kills and .405 hitting percentage to go with 15 digs for her 11th double-double of the season. 
Adams matched her season high with 11 kills while hitting .444 as the Coyotes hit .307 as a team in the win.
Slaughter had nine kills, Harms eight while Wiedenfeld also had eight kills and hit .667.
Jurgens posted a line of 49 assists, nine digs, two kills and two aces while Weideman had 16 digs, six assists and four aces.

HONORS
Juhnke and Weideman were each named Summit League players of the week on Tuesday. 
Juhnke, the offensive player of the week, had 38 kills in the Coyotes four-set wins over Kansas City and Oral Roberts. She also added 27 digs and seven total blocks while hitting .333.
Weideman, the defensive player of the week, contributed 45 digs, 5.63 per set, in the two matches, including a four-set career-high of 29 against Kansas City. 

CAREER NOTES
Juhnke currently sits in 10th on the career kills list with 1,161. She is 25 away from ninth, currently be held by Nikki Daggitt (1995-99), with 1,186 and 26 away from eighth, held by Hayley Dotseth (2015-18) with 1,187.
Jurgens currently sits in third on the career assists list with 4,291.
Jurgens is fourth on the career service aces list with 143, only five away from third, occupied by Liz Lough (1992-95) with 148.

WESTERN ILLINOIS
Western Illinois is led offensively by Kennedy Davis at 2.46 kills per set while Peyton Bowman is at 2.15, Aubrey Putman 1.94, Kalynn Davis 1.94 and Emma Norris 1.62. 
Kennedy Davis is the team leader in kills with 219 and service aces with 19 while her .319 hitting percentage is sixth-best in the Summit League.
Maggie Craker, who took over at setter early in the season, is average 7.52 assists per set but that number jumps to 9.10 during league play. 
Karli Wenzel leads the way defensively with 3.41 digs per set while Craker is at 2.83 and Erika Moore 2.72. 
Bowman ranks seventh in the Summit League at 1.04 blocks per set and her 16 solo blocks rank her second behind Harms in the Summit League.

LAST TIME OUT
Western Illinois split a pair of road matches last weekend in North Dakota, defeating North Dakota in five sets before falling to North Dakota State in four sets.
Bowman had 13 kills, Putman 11 and Norris 10 in the loss to the Bison while Craker had 39 assists. 
Putman had 15 digs, Craker 12 and Wenzel 11 in a match that Western Illinois won the first set, before falling in the next three.

THE SERIES
The Coyotes, who have won 12 straight in the series with Western Illinois, has an overall mark of 19-3 against the Leathernecks in the Division I era. 

UP NEXT
The Coyotes stay on the road for a matcn at St. Thomas on Saturday (3 p.m.).