The South Dakota volleyball team beat Iowa and Northern Illinois in both sets and split with Iowa State, Kansas State, North Dakota State and Iowa ICE (USA professional volleyball league team) at the UNI Spring Invite held Saturday on the UNI campus.

The format consisted of two sets to 25, win by two.

“Overall, it was a great day for our team,” said South Dakota head volleyball coach Leanne Williamson. “We were able to see a lot of the hard work that the players have put in this spring season pay off. Our hitters did a very good job of using multiple shots and limiting our errors. Britt did a great job of getting all of our hitters involved. She was able to get the hitters a lot of one on one situations and our hitters capitalized. Our defense is still moving in the right direction and we were able to keep a few teams to lower hitting percentages.”

 

Sophomore Brittany Jessen fueled the Coyote’s offense with 132 assists (13.2 per set). Junior Audrey Reeg swatted down 37 kills and freshman Hayley Dotseth added 29. The team had a hitting percentage of .236 on the day.

 

Defensively, freshman Lauren Mattison protected the backline with 43 digs while classmate Kelly Braghini was the middle blocker and tallied 10 blocks.

 

“This is the best a South Dakota team has looked at this time in the spring,” said Williamson. “I am very excited for the future of this program after watching them compete this weekend. “

 

The UNI Spring Invite concludes the Coyote’s spring season. In the fall, the team will move to its new home, the Sanford Coyote Sports Center.

 

Results

USD 2, Iowa 0 (25-23, 25-23)

USD 1, Iowa State 1 (25-22, 14-25)

USD 1, Kansas State 1 (25-18, 19-25)

USD 2, Northern Illinois 0 (25-18, 25-21)

USD 0, Iowa Ice 2 (USA professional volleyball league team) (17-25, 17-25)

USD 1, NDSU 1 (13-15, 15-8)