Slaughter, Coyotes ready for Summit Showdown with Kansas City

Sami Slaughter is up for the challenge presented to her team this Friday and Saturday when the Coyotes take on Kansas City, the Summit League co-leaders, in a match that will have a lot to say about who wins the regular-season conference championship.

“They’re a very solid team,” Slaughter said. “So this is going to be fun.”

It’s easier to embrace big opportunities when you’ve earned them, of course. The Coyotes have done that by winning seven consecutive matches beginning with a victory over North Dakota State on Feb. 21 and continuing through last weekend when they moved ahead of Denver (9-2) by defeating the Pioneers on the road.

Now 11-4 overall and 10-1 in the Summit, a win over Kansas City (11-1 in the Summit) would put the Coyotes in a good spot with the conference tournament set for April 2-3 at the Sanford Pentagon.

A tournament championship would lock down a berth in the NCAA tournament that begins April 14 in Omaha, Neb. All 48 teams will be competing at one site.

Yes, the pandemic has been an issue for all Summit League teams, but just the same, when coupled with the uncertainties regarding whether or not there would even be a season, getting to this spot demanded perseverance and focus. It would have been easy to regard this season as nothing more than a string of scrimmages.

“Once we got into it, it was just like another season,” said USD coach Leanne Williamson. “I think the team has done a really good job of allowing themselves to fail and to learn and to grow. It’s a big part of any year but especially during a year like this where we were off for as long as we were and we didn’t have the opportunity to be in the gym with our team. We’ve done a great job of attacking the season.”

Slaughter, a 6-1 senior outside hitter from Harrisburg who started her college career at Nebraska, certainly qualifies as playing a prominent role in all that attacking. She is second behind Elizabeth Juhnke in kills (160) and second behind Madison Harms (1.45) in average blocks per set (.97).

The win streak has been based on a simple set of principles that have sustained a strong but relatively young team.

“We just had to focus on our side of the net and play volleyball,” Slaughter said. “It doesn’t matter who the opponent is on the other side of the net. When we did that, when we started focusing on ourselves, we started winning games.”

Slaughter spent her first two seasons with the Cornhuskers, a perennial national power, before deciding USD would be a better fit. She remembered liking the way Williamson sold the school and the Coyotes got a call.

The Coyotes were a strong program before Slaughter became part of the team in 2019. She’s done nothing but add to that. The adjustment process, in this case, was way overrated. She was ready to go. 

“I was comfortable here my first practice,” Slaughter said. “When I stepped out on the court for my first practice, everyone was supportive and I felt like I’d been here forever. I didn’t feel like “the new girl” –  that’s how it’s been the whole way.”