The South Dakota State Jackrabbit volleyball team traveled to Minnesota last Saturday to play St. Thomas. SDSU extended its win streak to 19-0 on the season after beating the Tommies 3-1 and USD 3-2.
SDSU is still the only undefeated Division I volleyball team left in the nation after Tuesday’s win.
“Coming into this year I think we had that little chip on our shoulder that we didn’t want last year to happen again,” said Junior Ali Schlimgen talking about last year compared to this year.
“Just seeing how our team has come together and made sure last year hasn’t happened again. Now look at where we’re going. It’s been incredible to be a part of.”
St. Thomas
Sophomore Sylvie Zgonc led the Jacks in scoring with 17 kills while adding a team-high 12 digs to notch her tenth double-double of the year.
The other Jack with double-digit kills was redshirt junior Sydni Schetnan who managed 15 on the night.
Offensively, the two SDSU setters both had a good performance with sophomore Rylee Martin tallying 27 assists, nine digs and two aces. Camryn Honn notched 19 assists, seven digs and two kills.
Defensively the Jacks were stout with ten total blocks as a team.
The SDSU middle blocker, Schetnan recorded eight of those blocks with freshman Madison Burr adding one block and eight kills.
In the first set, the Tommies jumped out to an early 16-7 lead. In the end, the point differential was too much, and the Jacks lost set one 16-25.
In set two the Jacks came out and jumped to a 13-10 lead and were able to hold St. Thomas off to even the score at one set a piece with a score of 25-20 in the second.
The third set got off to a close start with St. Thomas jumping to a 9-7 lead over the Jacks. But eventually, the Jackrabbits overcame the slow start to win the set. 25-20
In the fourth set, the Jacks jumped out to a 5-0 lead and cruised to a 25-18 win to take the match 3-1.
“Credit to our team when it’s time to put our foot on the gas and go,” Head Coach Dan Georgalas on the slow start against St. Thomas.
“There’s just something special about our group that’s able to flip a switch and exert our will on our opponent.”
South Dakota
South Dakota State started the first set of the match strong with a 25-18 win. The Jackrabbits had a 17.9% hitting percentage in set one while Zgonc finished as SDSU’s leading point scoring for the set.
Set two started with the Coyotes taking a commanding lead and finishing SDSU off with a 25-21 victory.
Jacks went down 10-19 late in the third set but saw a surge of points to push it to 21-20. Points went back and forth to 24-23 before a Madison Burr serve went passed the line to give the Coyotes a 2-1 advantage heading into set four.
South Dakota went up early and maintained at least a four-point lead in the fourth set before a surge of offense propelled SDSU back within one (14-13). Van Egdom tied the fourth set at 16-16 and Zgonc propelled the Jacks to a 18-17 lead. After back-to-back points from USD, set four was tied again, this time at 20 all. An antenna hit brought the score to a tied 24-24 before Zgonc gave the Jacks the 25-24 advantage before Zgonc answered yet again with a point to win the set for the Jacks.
Curtesy of a block from Schetnan early in set five, the Jacks emerged to a 3-0 advantage early in set five. South Dakota stayed dominant throughout the final match and brought the score to 11-5. SDSU continued their run and won off a touch to give SDSU the 15-8 victory. South Dakota State stays undefeated and moves to 19-0 on the season.
Denver
The South Dakota State Jackrabbits will host Denver on Saturday at First Bank & Trust Arena. SDSU comes into the game 19-0, trying to continue that magnificent start to their season.
The University of Denver Pioneers will go into Saturday’s game with a record close to .500, hoping to turn their season around against the Jackrabbits.
6’4 graduate student Cassie Davis leads the Pioneers in kills with over 250, aces with over 20, and she is second on the team in digs with just over 120.
Another graduate student, Molly Mirabelli, is another leader on the team. She leads the team in blocks with over 85 and also has over 175 kills.
Defensively, redshirt sophomore setter Briley Decker has over 600 total assists on the season to lead her team by over 500 assists. Alayna Finucan the junior libero has notched over 275 digs on the year.