BROOKINGS – South Dakota State improved to 4-0 in Summit League play on Thursday night as the Jackrabbits swept Kansas City at First Bank & Trust Arena.
SDSU head coach Dan Georgalas said after the game that the thing that jumped out on the stat sheet the most was how the Jacks served the ball as they had nine service aces.
“The stat that jumps off is service aces. We’ve gradually been building [freshman] Hannah Klein’s role and she goes off for five aces and has no errors. We need to play more cleaner at the service line, we gave them too many freebies, but we scored well and we sided out well. Our points scoring percentage was fantastic. We felt like we could go on runs on them at the service line and we certainly did that,” Georgalas said.
The Jacks jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first set. They extended the lead to 12-4 and then led 20-7. SDSU eventually won the set 25-16.
Georgalas said it was nice to see his team get off to a fast start.
“I’m very happy with us coming out and scoring the first point. We had a first ball kill and scored the first point of the match. It was exactly how we scored the first point when we opened this arena last fall against the same opponent,” Georgalas said.
It was 4-4 early in the second set and SDSU then went on a 7-2 run to go up 11-6. Kansas City cut the lead to 20-17 and then the Jacks scored five of the next six points to win the set 25-18 and go up 2-0.
The Roos battled in set three and it was 9-9 towards the midway point of the set. SDSU then went on a 6-1 run to go up 15-10. The Jacks then used a 5-0 run to go up 22-14 and won the set 25-18 to complete the sweep.
SDSU hit .248 as a team. Sylvie Zgonc led the way with 11 kills and six digs. Sydni Schetnan had 10 kills and four blocks and Madison Burr had nine kills and two blocks. Hannah Klein had seven kills.
Georgalas said his middle blockers are tough to prepare for and compliment each other well.
“I think Madison Burr and Sydni Schetnan are the best middle blocker duo in the [Summit League]. They compliment each other well. Sydni is 6-foot-5 and is [her reach] is touching 10-foot-8. Madison Burr has a cannon of an arm and [her reach] is touching 10-foot-3 now. So, their physicality and their skills, they’re not the same player and you have to prepare differently for both. They do different things well and I think that makes them a really tough matchup for teams at that position at the net,” Georgalas said.
Joslyn Richardson had 13 digs and Brooke Larsen had 10 digs. Rylee Martin had 34 assists and six digs.
SDSU is now 10-3 overall and will welcome St. Thomas to Brookings on Saturday at 7 p.m. The Tommies 10-5 overall and 3-1 in the Summit League. The Jacks are alone in first place in the Summit League as they are the only unbeaten team.
Saturday’s match is part of SDSU’s hike and spike promotion. Fans that attend the SDSU football game on Saturday afternoon can show their ticket to get into the volleyball match for free. Georgalas said he’s excited for the possible environment and knows his team will be ready to play come first serve.
“We remember [UST] ending our win streak last year, but it’s opponent 14 for us. We are prepared for the moment on Saturday. Our strength of schedule in the non-conference and our start to league play that we’ve had so far, we don’t need to build up Saturday anymore than we do, because we’ve seen how our team plays when there’s something on the line and we want that other team on the side of the net. I’m super excited for our group and they’ve earned that opportunity that’s coming up on Saturday night. … We need everybody to come over from the football game and fill this arena,” Georgalas said.
