First Serve
South Dakota earned a gritty five-set win at North Dakota Tuesday and now has a two-game lead atop the Summit League standings heading into a homestand. The Coyotes host Western Illinois Thursday at 7 p.m. and St. Thomas Saturday at 4:45 p.m. It's a doubleheader Saturday as the Coyote football team hosts Missouri State at 1 p.m. ahead of first serve.
 
The Coyotes
At 22-2, South Dakota boasts the seventh-best record in the country. The Coyotes have won nine straight matches and their 10-game home win streak is Division I's 13^th-longest active streak.
 
Elizabeth Juhnke continues to lead the nation in kills per set and is 32 shy of the Coyotes' single-season record of 557 set by Kendall Kritenbrink in 2013. She has worked with a new setter in freshman Madi Woodin the last two matches as Brooklyn Schram recovers from injury. Woodin made her first collegiate start against this same Western Illinois squad in Macomb back on Oct. 8. She's tallied 45 assists in her two most recent starts and contributed double-digit digs in both.
 
Libero Lolo Weideman is the Summit leader in digs and has averaged 6.0 digs per set in her last two matches. Middle blocker Madison Harms has had at least five blocks in five straight matches. Evelyn Diederich has totaled 12 kills in three straight matches.
 
The Leathernecks
Coaching veteran Dale Starr is in his first season with the Leathernecks following stints at Robert Morris and McNeese State. He is still seeking his first Summit League victory. Western Illinois hasn't been in the win column since Sept. 9 and the Leathernecks have lost 14 in a row to South Dakota. The team's last win in Vermillion came in 2015.
 
Brittany Wulf had 10 kills and 14 digs in a 3-0 loss to South Dakota in the first meeting. She leads the Leathernecks with 3.0 kills per set. Senior libero Karli Wenzel is second to Weideman on the Summit's digs list. Western Illinois did take the first set from Denver in a recent match before falling 3-1.
 
The Tommies
St. Thomas is visiting Vermillion for the first time. The Tommies are transitioning from Division III to Division I. They have hosted the Coyotes twice and played USD in Sioux Falls last year. They have pushed USD to four sets in two of those three matches including this year's match back on Oct. 6.
 
St. Thomas' lone Summit win came against Western Illinois. Outside hitter Lauren Galvin was named to the Summit's all-freshman team last year and is having another solid season. She went toe-to-toe with Juhnke in the first matchup, slamming 18 kills to Juhnke's 19. Carrie Rutledge is third on the Summit's dig list behind Weideman and Wenzel.
 
Record Breakers

• Juhnke recorded a Summit-record and program-record 39 kills in South Dakota's five-set match against North Dakota State on Sept. 27. That tally remains the top performance in the nation this season.
• Juhnke set a USD three-set program record with 24 kills in a 3-0 sweep of Oral Roberts on Oct. 13.
• Weideman hit a career-mark in the Sept. 24 Denver match, totaling 34 digs and matching the four-set program record.
• Harms recorded a career-high 13 blocks in a 3-2 win against Denver on Oct. 20, which ties for second in the five-set program record.

 
Up Next
The Coyotes head out to compete in their last road weekend of the regular season. South Dakota faces Kansas City next Thursday at 7 p.m. before facing Oral Roberts next Saturday at 1 p.m.