Kendall Kritenbrink tallied 12 kills and Brittany Jessen tallied 37 assists as South Dakota volleyball swept South Dakota State 25-12, 25-16, 25-16 in The Den on Tuesday night.
With the win, the Coyotes moved into sole possession of second-place in the Summit League standings and have topped the Jackrabbits nine straight times dating back to 2010.
The win sets up a potential battle for the top seed in the Summit League Tournament as USD (18-10, 12-3) hosts current league leader IUPUI (18-11, 13-2) in The Den on Sunday at 1 p.m. With a win, the Coyotes will clinch a share of the Summit League regular season title. USD beat IUPUI 3-2 in Indianapolis earlier this season.
The Coyotes more than doubled the Jacks (6-25, 0-14) in kills, holding a 47-23 edge in that stat. Including Kritenbrink, five Coyotes recorded at least seven kills with Melissa Firtko and Sydney Dimke both recording eight and Audrey Reeg and Kelsey Biltoft both adding seven.
Most of those kills were assisted by Jessen, who has averaged 11.8 assists per set over the past six matches. Jessen added three digs and three kills to Coyote effort. Riley Haug was the lone USD player to reach double-digit digs with 12 while Biltoft led the team in blocks with two solos and two block assists.
Tiara Gibson led the Jacks in kills with six while Kacey Hermann tallied eight digs to lead SDSU defensively. Brooke Leetham finished with 13 assists.
USD recorded a .389 hitting percentage in the match while holding SDSU to a .038 clip. The Coyotes also forced SDSU into 20 attack errors.
South Dakota set the tone early as their first eight attacks of the match ended up being kills. The Coyotes hit .583 in the opening set with 16 kills and a pair of errors on 24 attempts. Kritenbrink was the Yotes’ leading attacker with six kills.
SDSU had eight kills, seven attack errors and six digs in the opening set.
USD held a 17-7 advantage in kills and had runs of 7-0 and 5-0 during the second set. Reeg tallied five kills in the set while Biltoft added two solo blocks and a block assist.
Firtko tallied five kills in the final set as the Coyotes used a 14-2 run to seal the match. USD trailed 10-6 but took advantage of six SDSU errors and three kills from Firtko to take a 20-12 lead. The Coyotes tallied 14 kills and five attack errors in the set while SDSU had eight of each.
With the win, USD takes a 3-2 lead in the South Dakota Showdown Series standings.
