University of South Dakota Athletics

VERMILLION, S.D. – The South Dakota volleyball team closed out a dominant week in the Sanford Coyote Sports Center with a sweep of St. Thomas Saturday afternoon for its ninth straight win. 

For a third straight game, the Coyote defense held its opponent to a sub-.200 hitting percentage with St. Thomas hitting .136. Amanda Loschen tallied eight kills on a .412 hitting percentage, while Morgan Bode hit .333 for seven kills and the Coyotes swung at a .261 clip as a team. Lauren Medeck paced the Yotes in kills (11) and digs (14). 

Avery Van Hook did a little bit of everything with 29 assists, six kills on seven swings, two aces, two blocks and six digs.

Everyone was involved in the first set with five Coyotes registering multiple kills, all nine recorded a dig and USD hit .278 for a 25-21 set win. South Dakota was in a groove early, hitting over .400 in the early parts of the set to take a 15-8 lead when a Gabi Zachariasen kill sent the frame to a media timeout. The Tommies made things interesting late, eventually tying the score at 20-20. However, four errors by the Tommies moved USD to set point and Audrey Nelson hammered home a kill to put South Dakota up 1-0 in the match.

The two teams combined for 50 digs in the second set, as the hitting percentages dipped with USD hitting .170 to St. Thomas' .024. Medeck had a team-high five kills in the set, while Van Hook dialed up two aces and Bode had a pair of blocks. The Coyotes again prevailed in crunch time for the second straight set. With a 21-19 lead late, Loschen sparked a run of three straight Coyote kills to move to set point, and after a kill from the Tommies, Loschen put away her second kill in five points to move USD up 2-0 in the match.

After a slow start in the third, where the Tommies went up 7-1, the Coyote offense got back in their groove to finish the set with a .375 hitting percentage. Medeck had four kills, while Loschen, Bode and Van Hook all had three kills apiece. Momentum swung to the Yotes in the middle of the set following a 7-1 run to take a 17-15 lead. With the score tied at 20-20, the Coyotes took control in the redzone for the third straight set outscoring St. Thomas 5-1 to close out a 3-0 sweep with a 25-21 set win 

South Dakota's nine-game win streak is the longest by the Yotes since 2022 when they put together two 13-match win streaks.

The Coyotes improve to 16-5 on the season, 9-1 in the Summit League and 7-1 at home.

South Dakota hits the road for the final time in the regular season next week when they face Kansas City on Thursday and Oral Roberts on Saturday.
 

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