BROOKINGS — South Dakota State volleyball has started the season with six-straight victories. It’s the best start in the Division I era and something that head coach Dan Georgalas has been waiting for.

SDSU began the season with a three-game sweep in the Georgia State Invitational as the Jacks beat Florida A&M, Georgia State and Indiana State. The Jackrabbits followed that up with wins against Western Illinois, UIC and Purdue Fort Wayne in the Leatherneck Classic over the weekend.

This summer the Jacks went on a foreign trip to Brazil. Heading into the season Georgalas said that his team was 20 days ahead of schedule because they had 10 practice days ahead of the tour and the tour was 10 days long.

Now, after the 6-0 start, Georgalas thinks those 20 extra days in the offseason really paid off.

“It’s been really fun. Coming off of the foreign tour and with the arena opening this year, we wanted to get off to a fast start and we saw ourselves going into these tournaments and being successful. To come out with the first tournament championships in program history and the longest win streak since 2002, it just seems like everything is coming together,” Georgalas said.

Georgalas is in his fifth season as the Jackrabbit head coach. In spring 2021, the Jacks didn’t play any non-conference games due to COVID. In fall 2021, SDSU went 8-3 in the non-conference, but over the past two seasons the Jacks have gone 8-16 in out-of-conference games.

Last year SDSU did not play a home non-conference tournament due to the renovations going on at Frost Arena. Georgalas wanted to put together a more travel friendly schedule this season and filled the non-conference schedule with mid-major teams. He said this will allow his team to be prepared for the competition that they will see in the Summit League as well as build some confidence before conference play.

“Our opportunities to play against the power four [conference teams] will come again. But having learned from last season and the winning streak we’re on and having a winning record in non-conference, I would argue [playing this type of schedule] has a better impact on our preparation for Summit League play. We’re winning a lot right now, but we’re being pushed and winning close sets,” Georgalas said.

During SDSU’s win streak, the Jackrabbit offense has been clicking. SDSU is averaging 13.6 kills per set and has an attack percentage of .270 as a team.

Sophomore outside hitter Sylvie Zgonc is leading the Jacks with 102 kills. She led SDSU with 374 kills last season, but Georgalas said what he’s liked the most so far this year is it’s not just Zgonc doing all the heavy lifting on offense.

Three other players have over 40 kills in redshirt junior Sydni Schetnan, graduate transfer Alyssa Groves and freshman Madison Burr.

“We know Sylvie can take over any match. Her numbers are always indicative of that, but the most exciting part about it this year is that we’re more balanced. We’re scoring from the middle and scoring from the right side. … It’s nice that Sylvie has that scoring capability, but it’s nice that we don’t have to rely on her as much and our offense has been much more balanced than it was last year,” Georgalas said.

SDSU entered the 2024 season with eight new players between freshman and transfers. Georgalas said Burr, who is from Goodhue, Minn., and Groves, who transferred from Colorado State, have shown a lot of promise in the first two weeks of the season.

“Madison Burr has started for us in the middle, opposite of Sydni Schetnan, and it allows Sydni to move into a role where she’s focused on her blocking and she’s doing great at that,” Georgalas said. “Maddy is a gifted athlete and the two of them are physical, athletic, smart and competitive.

“Alyssa Groves, our grad transfer right side [hitter] from Colorado State. She kind of had a rough first weekend, but those were some of the first starts of her career. Seeing her growth from week one to week two, she hit over .400 this past weekend and I named her [team] MVP. She’s grown a ton and is 6-foot-4. She’s next to Sydni and having those two on the lineup card, they’re two of the bigger blockers in the Summit League.”

Burr, Schetnan and Groves combined for 83 blocks in the first six matches. Last season SDSU had 199.5 blocks as a team.

The Jacks have two weekends left of non-conference play. They’ll travel to Peoria, Ill., for the Bradley Invitational this weekend. SDSU will take on Eastern Illinois on Friday at 12 p.m. and then play Bradley at 12 p.m. on Saturday.

SDSU will close out the non-conference with the Jackrabbit Invitational at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls. The Jacks will match up against Idaho State on Sept. 19, Toledo on Sept. 20 and Belmont on Sept. 21.

Georgalas said the competition will be tough this weekend as Eastern Illinois and Bradley are both strong programs.

“We play Eastern Illinois this weekend and they won their conference and were in the NCAA Tournament last year. … Bradley is an upstart program that is doing good things and it’s never easy playing the tournament host on their home floor. I like how our non-conference schedule wraps up with only two matches this weekend and not having the grind of playing three matches in 24 hours. Then hopefully we can come off another successful weekend and play some games in the state of South Dakota, which we didn’t have [last year],” Georgalas said.