The Jackrabbit volleyball team will play in their second Summit League Championship game in a row when they face St. Thomas Tuesday at 6 p.m.
After a perfect 16-0 regular season record in conference play, SDSU nabbed the number one seed for the Summit League Tournament – and also grabbed a lot of awards on the way.
Junior outside hitter Sylvie Zgonc takes home Summit League Player of the Year and head coach Dan Georgalas the Coach of the Year award, both for the second year in a row.
Several Jackrabbits made the 2025 All-Summit League Volleyball First Team. Madison Burr, Rylee Martin, Sydni Schetnan and Zgonc were all given first-team honors.
Outside hitter Hannah Klein was also named to the 2025 Summit League Freshman Team.
Although the Jacks have a lot of talent, it won’t be an easy task to beat the third-seeded St. Thomas Tommies.
The Tommies went 11-5 in conference play and swept the Omaha Mavericks in the first round of tournament play.
In the second round Monday, they faced the second-seeded USD Coyotes. After being down 2-1 in the match, St. Thomas fought back and got a 3-2 win to move on to the championship game. It’s the team’s first-ever postseason tournament at the Division I level.
Jackrabbit head coach Dan Georgalas says the Tommies’ inexperience is an edge for SDSU.
“We have been in this moment, and we’re going to have a really tough opponent on the other side of the net from us,” Georgalas said. “This is their first postseason tournament in the history of their Division I program. They’ve never been in a championship game before, and we have. We’re going to use that as an advantage.”
Even with postseason inexperience, St. Thomas is loaded with talent.
The Tommies are led in scoring by senior Tezra Rudzitis, who was named to the 2025 All-Summit League Volleyball First Team. Rudzitis has tallied 392.5 points on the season with 368 kills.
2025 Summit League Freshman of the Year Anya Schmidt follows close behind with 389.5 points on 314 kills. Schmidt also has 200 digs on the season.
Junior Morgan Kealy received first-team honors and the 2025 Setter of the Year award. Wetter totaled 1075 assists on the season and scored 153 points.
Senior middle blocker Megan Wetter was also awarded with a first-team appearance. Wetter scored 361.5 points on the season with 289 kills and 86 blocks.
SDSU is looking to bounce back after a heartbreak last year in the Summit League Tournament when they lost the championship in five sets to the USD Coyotes.
“We know how last year went and we don’t want that to happen again,” said sophomore Madison Burr. “So, like Sylvie (Zgonc) said, we’re just going to go after it.”
SDSU won both matchups against St. Thomas in the regular season, 3 sets to 1.
The Jacks will now try to go 3-0 on the season against the Tommies on Tuesday night to become Summit League Champions and capture a perfect season in conference play.
