The Jackrabbits finish up Summit League conference play boasting a 26-1 and received a bye in the Summit League Volleyball Conference Championships.
Oral Roberts
Last Thursday, SDSU hosted the Oral Roberts Golden Eagles. On senior night the Jackrabbits came out of the match with a 3-1 win to move to 24-1 on the season.
Sophomore Sylvie Zgonc got her 15th double-double of the season with 20 kills and ten digs.
Alyssa Groves also had a great night with 13 kills, matching her career high. Sydni Schetnan and Madison Burr followed closely behind with nine and ten kills respectively.
Senior setter Camryn Honn tallied 29 assists and zero errors on senior night while Rylee Martin followed with ten digs and 19 assists of her own.
Defensively, multiple Jacks showed out. Groves, Burr and Schetnan all tallied four blocks a piece to help seal a victory over the Golden Eagles.
In the first and second set, the Jacks took early leads that led to set wins (25-17, 25-19). The Jacks stumbled in the third (24-26) before they completed the 3-1 win with a dominant win in the fourth set (25-9).
North Dakota
On Saturday, the Jackrabbits swept the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks, clinched the Summit League regular-season title and improved to 25-1.
The Jacks got the first title since they won the regular season and post-season title in 2007.
“It’s tough to believe sometimes the growth and progress we’ve created over the last five years has been super rewarding,” said head coach Dan Georgalas on being named conference champions. “It’s really special to look at where we were when our staff got here five years ago and the state of the program now was 25-1 and conference champions, will be hosting the conference tournament next year, and we are the number one seed in the tournament next weekend. It’s kind of surreal and we just wake up every day with a smile on our face and super grateful.”
The outside hitter Zgonc had 14 kills and 12 digs against the Hawks, which were both team highs.
The other SDSU kill leaders were Schetnan, Burr and Groves who recorded eight, seven and six kills, respectively. Schetnan and Groves both added two blocks each to their stat line.
The two SDSU setters Honn and Martin also had a good night. Honn recorded 19 assists followed by Martin’s 17.
The Jacks survived the first set winning in a close contest (27-25), the jacks then took the next two (25-19) to complete a sweep and move to 25-1.
South Dakota
SDSU wraps up the regular season with a 3-0 sweep over the Coyotes and finishes 26-1 on the season.
In set one, the Jackrabbits and the Coyotes battled back and forth before the Jacks went on an eight-point run to bring the score to 11-3.
The coyotes fought back and with an ace from Alaina Wolfe, the score was ended 16-14 in favor of the Jacks.
Burr led the Jacks on an 9-2 run to finish set one with a 25-16 victory.
The Coyotes took an early lead in set two before three kills from Zgonc gave the Jackrabbits the lead once again, this time, 11-10.
A firing match broke out as both teams battled near the end of the set with USD being down by just one point. In similar fashion to set one, Burr led the Jacks on a run and took set two 25-22.
The Jacks continued their dominance into set three, scoring four points right away. Both teams fought before the Jacks started to pull away. Their largest lead of the set was by six points.
Lauren Medeck quickly brought the Jacks back to reality, scoring two of USD’s three consecutive points, bringing the score to 19-16. SDSU then pulled away, taking set three 25-20.
SDSU will take on the winner of NDSU and Denver. Match time is set for 4 p.m. on Monday in Kansas City.
