Casey Wonnenberg

This week in Frost Arena the Lady Jacks swept both Northern State and North Dakota State.

On Wednesday, Oct. 27, the Jacks defeated Northern State 30-21, 30-20, 30-23. The win against North Dakota State 30-24, 30-17, 30-25 on Saturday, Oct. 30, propelled the Jacks to a 14-11 record.

“We’ve come together as a team, and continue to raise our playing level,” said freshman outside hitter Kristina Martin.

Against Northern State, Martin tallied 15 kills and hit 452, while senior middle hitter Kim Bostrom contributed 14 kills. Defensively, senior Sarah Simet led the Jacks with 19 digs.

The SDSU volleyball team has won the past five games, which have all been at home.

“We’ve been able to practice and stay sharp from not traveling,” said SDSU coach Andrew Palileo.

At Saturday’s game, SDSU defeated rival NDSU for the second time this year. NDSU and SDSU are both in their first year of NCAA Division I.

“They’ve always been our rival. We swept them in three last time, and we wanted to do that again,” said Bostrom, who led the Jacks with a career-high 75 hitting percentage.

Bostrom exploded against NDSU by recording 15 kills for 20 attempts. Sophomore Carley Boll added 11 kills and freshman Kristina Martin 10. Sophomore outside hitter Minette Ridenour contributed a game-high 14 digs while Simet added 13.

The Jacks constantly mixed it up by alternating tipping and hitting.

“Our goal is to keep them guessing,” Bostrom said.

Last year NDSU beat SDSU in both encounters. This year a stronger, improved SDSU seemed unstoppable against their previous victors.

“We’ve been playing with a lot more intensity. They’ve always been our rivals and we knew we had to pick it up a notch,” said Martin.

The Jacks will continue their eight-match home stand this week on Nov. 2 against Wayne State, Nov. 5 against North Dakota, and Nov. 6 against Upper Iowa.