DENVER, Colorado – South Dakota extended its volleyball win streak to seven with a gritty four-set win over Denver on Friday during a Summit League match played in Hamilton Gymnasium.
The Coyotes handed the Pioneers a rare home loss and claimed their fourth straight win in the series, including third in a row inside Hamilton Gym. This one went 25-18, 25-22, 19-25, 25-18.
South Dakota (11-4 overall), with the win, maintains pace with Kansas City, a 3-0 winner over Oral Roberts on Friday, atop the Summit League, each with 10-1 records.
"This is a great win for our team," coach
Leanne Williamson said. "Playing at Denver is tough, and I think our team was very composed today."
The back-and-forth match saw only 12 ties and seven lead changes, with the majority of those coming in the second set, as the Coyotes broke form the gates strong and never trailed in winning set one.
South Dakota limited Denver to a season-low .118 hitting percentage with included a season-high 30 attack errors. Meanwhile, the Coyotes finished with a .228 hitting percentage, which included a .360 effort in set one and a .393 effort in set four.
Elizabeth Juhnke contributed 16 kills and 10 digs for her 10
th double-double of the season for the sophomore.
Aimee Adams contributed nine kills and 10 digs while
Sami Slaughter and
Maddie Wiedenfeld had seven kills apiece and
Madison Harms six.
Madison Jurgens provided 37 assists, three kills, 12 digs and one service ace in the victory while defensively
Lolo Weideman had 14 digs and
Brooklyn Bollweg five. Harms added two solo and four assisted blocks, part of 10 total team blocks in the victory for South Dakota.
The Coyotes trailed 14-18 in the second set before rallying, eventually taking a 22-21 lead before closing out the set with an Adams kill and Juhnke kill sandwiched around a Denver error.
The Pioneers controlled set three, leading by 11 at one point at 6-17, before seeing South Dakota rally to within four at 18-22.
A 6-1 spurt early in set four snapped a 2-2 deadlock and gave South Dakota an 8-3 lead it would not relinquish. The lead grew to seven at 18-11 and that's what it ended up when the match ended 25-18.
"When you play a good team, there are going to be runs, which we say today multiple times," Williamson said. "Our team stayed very aggressive and made plays down the stretch.
"Our serving really helped us as the match progressed to take their middles out of it on the first swing more often which is what we wanted to see. Denver is a great team who challenged us from start to finish which makes us better as we progress through the season."
Due to an expected snowstorm to hit the Denver area on Saturday, the two teams mutual agreed to cancel Saturday's second match in the series. It will go down as a no-contest under Summit League rules.
South Dakota returns to the Sanford Coyote Sports Center for its final two regular season home matches with 7 p.m. first serves against Kansas City on Friday and Saturday.
"We are bummed that we are not able to play our second match against Denver tomorrow, but it was the right decision to keep the teams and event staff safe," Williamson said. "We are excited to continue our journey next weekend at home against a very good Kansas City team."
