Nick Hartley

On Nov. 10, the Jacks wrapped up the Summit League, a regular season championship, with a win over Oral Roberts.

SDSU swept pre-season favorite ORU 30-21, 30-18 and 30-22 in front of a crowd of 914 energetic Jacks fans. In doing so, the Jacks earned the right to play Western Illinois in the first round of the Summit League tournament Friday in Fort Wayne, Ind.

“The seniors did a really great job of leading us to victory,” Head Coach Andrew Palileo said. “I challenged the seniors to set the tone and set the pace for future teams.”

“Oral Roberts was playing for a lot tonight,” said senior Samantha Pearson, who had 17 digs on the night and now has 1839 digs in her career as a Jackrabbit, “and we figured they’d come out swinging. Defensively, we played a lot different than we have in the past, we were more scrappy tonight.”

The second game ended on a big kill from Kristina Martin, who became the fifth member of the 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs club during the the second match. Martin finished the night with 18 kills and 15 digs, making her the Summit League player of the week for the second time.

“It’s great. I really didn’t look to get that,” said Martin, who is 33 kills short of becoming the all-time kills record holder. “It’s a good feeling. It would be a great accomplishment to break the kills record. It’s not in the bag, I think I can do it.”

Coming into the third game, the Jacks had everything in their favor. However, it was not until midway through the game that the Jacks took a lead. From there, the Jacks raced out to a sizable lead as the seniors led the charge.

In fitting fashion, Martin hammered home the final point of the game, assuring the Jacks their spot as regular season champions.

“It feels really good,” senior Mackenzie Osadchuk said. “Coach said before the game he hasn’t been to the postseason since 2003. Going through the transition, we knew someday we would be able to play in a conference and play in a conference tournament. It feels good to ones that got to do it.”

Amy Anderson finished the match with nine kills, six digs and added two more block assists to up her career total to 390. “It’s fun,” she said. “It’s my favorite part of the game to take a kill away from somebody and put it down on the other side. They definitely bring it. They help me put my energy up so it (sharing energy) works both ways.”

Next up for the Jacks is a first round game against Western Illinois on Nov. 16 at 5 p.m. The Jacks are 2-0 this year against the WesterWinds.

#1.883088:2287350270.jpg:volleyballseniorsJD.jpg:Jackrabbit volleyball seniors honored before the team wins the regular season Summit League championship.:Jon Dahmen