BROOKINGS — The South Dakota State volleyball team improved its record to 20-0 by defeating Denver in four sets on Saturday afternoon. While the Jackrabbits’ record indicates the dominance they’ve shown all season Saturday’s win, which came by scores of 18-25, 27-25, 26-24 and 25-18, showed SDSU the types of challenges they’ll face in their second trip through the Summit League.

“We’ve got to keep learning,” SDSU head coach Dan Georgalas said after the game. “I think the message we gave them this week is that we don’t need to wait for a loss to teach us something. A lot of coaches say you either win or you learn and we don’t need a loss to teach us something.

“Let’s keep learning Monday through Wednesday. Let’s be transparent with how teams are scouting us and game planning for us because now that we’re playing everybody a second time, all of those second matchups in the back half of league play are going to be tougher.”

The degree of difficulty was apparent in the first set as the Jacks couldn’t couldn’t find their footing offensively with a .129 hitting percentage. The Pioneers took advantage while hitting .345 and racking up 15 kills and built a 16-13 lead before surging ahead to win the first set 25-18.

“Denver was just fantastic. Their offense was lights out,” Georgalas said of the first set. “We were struggling to get block touches and digs in the first set and we struggled to creat offensive opportunities for us. … We just weren’t doing a good job defensively and they came out really strong and were getting scoring from just about every player and that made it tough to defend right off the bat.”

The Pioneers took another early lead in the second set, jumping ahead 8-4 and holding that lead at 10-6 before the Jacks scored four straight points before tying the set at 10-10 on a block by Sydni Schetnan and Sylvie Zgonc.

SDSU took a 16-15 lead later in the set to force a Denver timeout and reached set point at 24-22. While Denver rebuffed the attempt to close the set with two straight points and did it again after trailing 25-24, SDSU put the set away with a Josylyn Richardson ace to win 27-25.

“I think we really started serving into Zone One a little bit more, serving behind the setter,” Georgalas said of the adjustments in the second set. “I think that started to make the flow of the game a little tougher for their setter. …They’re a really talented offensive team. They run really fast and their left side tempto to their [outside hitters] are really quick. We played some slower tempo teams last week and we were trying to make some adjustments there with our right side blocker.”

After an adjustment in the second set, the Jacks showed their resilience in the third. The Jacks opened with a 4-1 lead before Denver rallied to build a 16-10 advantage that forced an SDSU timeout. The Jacks went to work from there, cutting the lead to 19-17 on a Zgonc block and took the lead on a ball-handling error by Briley Decker.

SDSU extended its lead to 23-20 but Denver rallied for four straight points to force set point before the Jacks scored three points of their own to win the third set 26-24 on an attack error by Denver’s Kate Perryman.

By this point, the Jacks were rolling and SDSU jumped out to a 10-2 lead to open the fourth set before going wire-to-wire for a 25-18 win to preserve their 20th straight victory.

Zgonc led the way with 25 kills, 10 digs, three blocks and a pair of aces but the Jacks got contributions elsewhere including Alyssa Groves, who broke out with nine kills, six blocks, four digs and a .571 hitting percentage and a Katie Van Egdom, who had nine kills, three digs and a block. 

Schetnan also had a big game with five blocks and five kills but left the game before match point with a leg injury in the fourth set and was helped off the court. Georgalas said he did not see the injury occur and will see how it progresses heading into next week.

Rylee Martin led SDSU with 26 assists while Camryn Honn had 15 assists. Richardson had two service aces Madison Burr had five blocks to go with an ace. 

Anna Brown-Ventling also had three blocks and two digs for the Jacks.

Cassie Davis led Denver with 15 kills while Ava Reynolds (14 kills) and Molly Mirabelli (13 kills) also finished in double figures. Alyna Finucan led Denver with 21 digs and Davis and Reynolds each had two aces each.

Perryman led Denver with four blocks and Decker had 44 assists for the Pioneers.

With their perfect season intact, the Jacks will hit the road for road games against Omaha on Thursday and Kansas City on Saturday. But while they have a tough road ahead, they continue to enjoy the moment and look forward to the challenge of a second trip through the Summit League.

“It’s great. It’s hard to believe. It’s surreal,” Georgalas said of the 20th straight victory. “I ask the staff and coaches to pinch me once a week. To win 20 in a row and not lose, you’ve just got to give credit to the girls and their grit, their determination. We’ve had slow starts, we’ve gone down and lost the first set and when the scoreboard hits 20, our girls just know how to flip the switch and play their best volleyball.”