JOPLIN, Mo. – The Black Hills State University volleyball team opened the 2019 season splitting two matches at the Southern Invitational. In the first match of the day, and the year, the Yellow Jackets (1-1) took down Southwest Oklahoma State University (0-1), 3-1, before falling, 3-0, to Missouri Southern State University (1-0).

"It was great to get our first win this morning, but we struggled to maintain our offensive tempo in the second match. We are still working on consistency and finding who our go-to's are in the early season," said head coach Kristin Carmichael. "We are excited to play again tomorrow and get better every day."

BHSU 3, SWOSU 1 (26-28, 25-23, 27-25, 25-15)

In the first set, the Yellow Jackets got on the board first with a kill by Sierra Ward, but the Bulldogs quickly jumped out to a 14-8 lead. After a BHSU timeout, the Green and Gold battled back to tie up the set, 16-16. The rest of the set was a back-and-forth affair, with SWOSU eventually earning the 28-26 set victory.

The Bulldogs kept the momentum early in the second set, eventually leading by seven points, 19-12. Taking advantage of some SWOSU errors and a pair of kills by Ashley Uffelman, the Yellow Jackets chipped away and pulled within two, 21-19. After a timeout, the Green and Gold would go on to take the lead, 23-22, and ultimately the set, 25-23. BHSU ended the set on a 13-4 run to tie up the match, 1-1.

The third set proved to be another battle, with neither team able to grab a substantial lead. With the set tied, 16-16, the teams traded sideouts until again tying up the set at 25. Tess Thomas was back to serve and tallied an ace before assisting Laurel Lech on the set-winning kill for the Yellow Jackets.

The beginning of the fourth set stayed tight, but after a 5-5 tie, the Green and Gold gained momentum, gradually increasing their lead. Using a 7-2 run, BHSU closed out the set, 25-15, and the match, 3-1.

Ward and Madee Hoopman each finished the match with 10 kills, while Kindra Cerrone had eight. Lech recorded her first double-double of the season, tallying 24 assists and 11 digs. The senior also had six kills and three block assists. Haedyn Rhoades finished with 22 digs, and Ceronne (13) and Jessy Hibl (11) each reached double-digit digs.

MSSU 3, BHSU 0 (25-18, 25-19, 25-16)

The Lions jumped out to a 7-3 lead in the first set and never looked back. The Yellow Jackets were able to get within two points a number of times, but were unable to break through, and MSSU took the first set, 25-18.

MSSU used a series of runs to take control of the second set, beginning and ending with a 4-0 run. The third set was similar, with the Yellow Jackets trailing 6-5 before the Lions rattled off three consecutive kills en route to a 25-16 victory.

Peyton Bodemann and Lech both finished with seven kills in the match. Lech added 13 assists and eight digs.

Next Up

The Yellow Jackets are back in action Saturday, September 7, for two more matches at the Southern Invitational. BHSU will play Wayne State College at 8 a.m. before taking on Cameron University at 4 p.m. to wrap up the first weekend of play.

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Black Hills State is located in the Northern Black Hills of South Dakota, sponsoring 13 NCAA sports with membership in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, the NCAA emerging sport of women's triathlon and NIRA rodeo. For all information regarding Yellow Jacket Athletics, please visit BHSUAthletics.com or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram @BHSUAthletics.

---BHSUAthletics.com---