University of South Dakota Athletics

VERMILLION, S.D. – South Dakota volleyball celebrated its five seniors, Avery Van Hook, Amanda Loschen, Amelia Dugger, Samantha Laird and Katherine Thompson, Saturday with a 3-0 sweep of North Dakota to close out the regular season with a 13-match win streak.

South Dakota finished the regular season with a 20-5 record and a 13-1 mark in the Summit League. 

Van Hook did a little bit of everything with 29 assists, 10 digs, seven kills on eight swings and an ace. Lauren Medeck had a match-high 12 kills on a .417 clip, while Morgan Bode had eight kills on a .615 hitting percentage. Loschen hit .444 with four kills and three blocks. In total, four Coyotes with eight or more swings on the night hit .400+ and USD hit .330 as a team. 

Sierra Pokharel dug up a match-high 17 attacks and was one of four Coyotes to serve up two aces on the night. 

North Dakota started the match out in front with an early 5-2 lead, but the Coyotes settled in quickly and roared ahead with a 13-2 run to take a 15-7 lead into the first set media timeout. Behind a .353 hitting percentage, their highest in a set in the match, the Coyotes cruised to a 25-15 set one win. Medeck and Bode put away four kills each in the opener, while Van Hook called her own number on three occasions, which resulted in three kills. South Dakota held UND to a .094 hitting percentage in the first set, its lowest of the match. 

Medeck continued to set the pace on the outside with four more kills in the second set, while Zachariasen began to heat up with four kills on five swings. Pokharel dialed up two of the Yotes' five aces in the set. Medeck and Bode fueled a 6-0 early run for the Yotes with a combined five kills and a Samantha Untiedt ace made it an 11-4 Coyote lead. Zachariasen made her presence felt in a 4-1 run with a pair of kills followed by her first of her two aces on the night to extend the lead to 18-8. An attack error by the Fighting Hawks moved the Yotes to set point, and Carly Ries put away the set-winning kill to give USD a 2-0 lead in the match. 

Van Hook capped off her night by guiding the Coyotes to a .344 hitting percentage in the third set and also had four kills on four swings, four digs, an ace and a block. Medeck tallied her third straight set with four kills, while Loschen took part in two blocks. UND started the set with five straight points and held the lead for a majority of the set until a Van Hook kill tied the set at 18-18. From there, the Coyotes dominated the closing part of the match with an 8-2 run to take the set 25-20 and the match 3-0. 

South Dakota holds the eighth-longest win streak in the country at 13 matches and is one of 11 teams currently with a double-digit match win streak. 

With the win today, the Coyotes have now reached the 20-win mark for the eighth time under head coach Leanne Williamson and for the third straight season and have reached double-digit conference wins 11 years in a row. 

South Dakota will now turn its attention to the Summit League Tournament where they hold the No. 1 seed as the Summit League Regular Season Champions. The Coyotes will face the winner of No. 4 Omaha vs No. 5 North Dakota State on Monday, November 23 at 3 p.m. in Brookings, South Dakota.