South Dakota State volleyball battled through five sets with in-state rival South Dakota Saturday night but came up just short to the defending Summit League tournament champion. The match was played in front of 1,524 fans, a new record for volleyball attendance at Frost Arena.
The Jackrabbits (8-8, 2-2 Summit League) won the opening set, dropped sets two and three, and rallied to take the fourth before ultimately falling in five (25-16, 23-25, 16-25, 25-22, 10-15).
In a matchup of two of the Summit’s top attackers, USD’s Elizabeth Juhnke and SDSU’s Crystal Burk impressed, notching 19 and 18 kills, respectively. Juhnke ranks first in the nation in total kills this season while Burk ranks fifth.
The Jackrabbits notched 12 service aces in the match, falling one short of the Frost Arena single-match record and three shy of the program’s overall single-match mark. Burk had four aces, Elyse Winter had three, Masa Scheierman and Jadyn Makovicka had two apiece and Raegen Reilly tacked on one.
Scheierman joined Burk with double-digit kills, finishing with 14. Ella Thompson and Elyse Winter were next with nine apiece. Reilly gave out 44 assists.
Jadyn Makovicka led the Jackrabbit defense with 18 digs on the night, followed by Burk with 15. Reilly and Katie Van Egdom both chipped in seven. Ella Thompson matched her season-best with seven blocks while Scheierman added four.
The Jackrabbits fired on all cylinders in set one and got seven kills at a .462 clip from Burk. Leading by one at 8-7, the Jacks pushed their lead to 15-8 with a 7-1 run. Three straight points capped by a Scheierman ace made it a 19-12 set, then another 3-0 stretch pushed it to 22-13. Scheierman and Sydney Andrews teamed up on the block to end set one.
Neither side let by more than three points in set two until USD strung together a run to lead 14-10. An 8-1 stretch for the Jacks that included three service aces put SDSU back on top, 18-15. Burk made it 22-19 with yet another ace before the Coyotes ended the set outscoring SDSU 5-1.
USD raced out to a 10-3 lead in the third set and extended that advantage to 15-6. Two aces during a five-point run for the Jackrabbits pulled the home team back within four and forced a Coyote timeout but that was as close as SDSU would come back in the set.
An 8-0 run in the middle of set four was the difference maker for the Jackrabbits. SDSU notched three blocks and an ace during the run for a 20-14 lead. USD cut the deficit to just two at 24-22. A kill from Winter sent the match to the tiebreak game.
A pair of service aces helped South Dakota to a 7-4 advantage in the final set. Following a kill from Burk, the Coyotes extended its lead to 11-5. USD called a timeout after four straight points pulled SDSU back within three and came out of the break with two points to end the match.
Overall the Coyotes had the edge in kills (57-53), hitting percentage (.200-.189) and assists (53-50). The sides were evenly matched in aces with 12 each and blocks with 10 each.
Madison Harms recorded 16 kills at a .407 clip and had five blocks for the Coyotes. Brooklyn Schram dished 49 assists and Lolo Weideman had 33 digs and six aces. USD improves to 14-2 on the year and 3-1 in conference action.
