RAPID CITY, S.D. – The Black Hills State University volleyball team defeated South Dakota Mines in a four set thriller, 3-1.
The Yellow Jackets took sets one, two and four while the Hardrockers took set three. The sets went as follows: 25-23, 25-20, 25-14 and 25-17.
In set one, the Hardrockers came out strong taking a quick four point lead over the Yellow Jackets at 5-1 with attack errors made by the Yellow Jackets. South Dakota Mines held onto the lead until 12-all. From there, the two teams traded off points until 16-all. The Yellow Jackets grabbed a two-point lead with errors made by the Hardrockers.
At 22-all, SD Mines got a go-ahead point at 23-22 with a kill coming from Emily Newton. It was not enough though as the Yellow Jackets took the final three points with a kill by Cheyenne Palu to tie it up at 23-all and a service ace from Laurel Lech to give BHSU the go-ahead point. The Green and Gold closed the set out at 25-23.
The Yellow Jackets momentum continued in set two as they took a quick 3-1 lead but it wasn't long until the Hardrockers tied it up at 3-all. The two teams traded off points until 8-all when Black Hills State ran away with it. At 11-9, BHSU scored five straight points to go up by six where three of those points came from kills by Palu, Brynn Eckhardt and Ellise Lech. The Hardrockers were unable to find the momentum to stop the Yellow Jackets as BHSU closed out the set at 25-20 to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
South Dakota Mines came out attacking hard to start the third set taking a quick 4-0 lead over the Yellow Jackets. One point came from a kill by Caryn Hazard while the other three points came from errors by Black Hills State. The Hardrockers kept that momentum as they held the Yellow Jackets to just 14 points and closed out the set 25-14 to trail by one in the match at 2-1.
In the fourth set, the Yellow Jackets came out strong taking a commanding lead 10-3. At 14-7, the Hardrockers cut the lead in half but it was not enough to overcome the sting of Black Hills State. The Green and Gold closed out the set 25-17 to win the match 3-1.
Brynn Eckhardt commanded the offense with 17 assists and 12 kills. She averaged a .323 hitting percentage. Laurel Lech worked alongside Eckhardt registering 17 assists of her own. Ellise Lech was the second leading attacker with eight kills followed by Palu with seven.
Lacy Stevens took charge of the defense with 23 digs. Palu lead the team in blocking with four while four other players each had one block. The team as a whole registered four.
"It's always great to get a win over tech, especially on the road," said head coach Kristin Carmichael. "Several members of our team contributed and we had good emotional control."
"This was another check on our season goals and a good stepping stone into our final match on Friday."
The Yellow Jackets improve to 8-17 on the season and 6-11 in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference action while the Hardrockers fall to 1-26 overall and 0-16 in RMAC play.
The Green and Gold return home to the Young Center for its final match of the season against University of Colorado Colorado Springs with first serve set at 7 p.m.
