SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Black Hills State volleyball competed in their season finale match against Westminster on Saturday evening and dropped three tightly contested sets to the Griffins.
The Yellow Jackets (5-21, 0-14 RMAC) attack was led by
Abigail Renner as the junior tallied 11 kills, two service aces, and two block assists to finish with 14 points on the evening. Renner finished the game with a .226 attacking percentage mark.
Emily Freeland finished the day with nine kills and a .259 clip while
Audrey Brgoch recorded six kills, a service ace, and one of two Yellow Jacket solo blocks on the night to cash out with eight points.
Hannah Lamon finished the game with 26 assists on the night and an assisted block while
Haedyn Rhoades led the team with 14 digs against the Griffins. Rhoades also recorded her 104
th career service ace against the Griffins, which allowed her to become fifth all-time in recorded career service aces in BHSU program history.
Set One (L, 25-20)
A swing from Renner and block from Wellhoefer gave BHSU a 3-1 lead after both teams traded the opening services. BHSU was able to fend off three trading scores from WU until the Griffins went on a 4-1 run to retake the lead, 13-11.
Continuing to push the Griffins into caving, the Yellow Jackets jumped onto a 3-0 burst that started with a block from Renner and Lamon and was followed by a WU attack error and Lamon kill, handing BHSU the lead back on a 18-17 scoreboard.
Not to be backed against a wall, however, WU turned aggressive and posted an 8-2 run that ended the set with BHSU down by five.
Set Two (L, 25-18)
Though a pair of kills from
Alyson Louderback and single spike from Brgoch put BHSU on the board with a 4-2 lead, another 6-2 run from the Griffins put WU on top by two.
The Griffins slowly began to pull away from they Yellow Jackets when a Freeland kill ignited a 4-1 run, which was backed by a Brgoch spike and a pair of Renner kills, to pull within one of WU, 13-12.
WU, however, did not give up the lead as they hit their stride with a 9-2 run that stretched their lead to 22-14. Despite two bad Griffin sets and points from a Brgoch block and Freeland kill creating four consecutive points for the Yellow Jackets, WU kept pace at the tail end of the set to take the 2-0 match lead.
Set Three (L, 25-21)
The third frame began on even standing as both teams climbed to a 4-4 tie, which was briefly changed to a one-point Griffin lead. A Freeland kill, Brgoch ace, and a Lamon kill combined with a WU attack error to lift BHSU to an 8-5 lead, which was stretched to an 11-7 scoreboard after another 3-1 series from the Yellow Jackets.
BHSU maintained a two-to-four-point margin over the Griffins through much of the set, but WU regained their footing in the match and recorded a 9-2 series to take the final set point for the 3-0 victory.
Season Highlights
Senior libero
Haedyn Rhoades made a big splash in her final season as a player: after becoming the all-time dig leader against UMary on Sept. 2, Rhoades became the first Yellow Jacket in program history to reach 2000 digs against South Dakota Mines on Sept. 29 and has finished the season with 2,223 career digs. Rhoades also finished the season with 104 career service aces, which places her fifth all-time in program history.
Setter
Hannah Lamon finished the season with 30 service aces to her credit, which places the senior fourth-highest, single-season ace count in program history, surpassing the previous spot held by
Kindra Cerrone who recorded 29 aces in the 2019 season. Lamon is also eighth in BHSU history with her 7.97 assists/set single-season mark and sixth in total assists in a single season with 781. Earlier in the year against Minot State, Lamon recorded the fourth-highest individual ace count in one game and most individual aces in a four-set match when she landed eight aces against the Beavers in the Yellow Jackets' 3-1 victory on Sept. 2.
As a team, the 2023 Yellow Jacket squad tied for the second-highest ace count a BHSU team has recorded in a single season with 133, which was also recorded during the 2021 season. BHSU hit a season-high of 15 aces against Minot State on Sept. 2, which is the most recorded by a Yellow Jacket squad in a single game in the program's history.
Up Next
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and other NCAA post-season awards will be announced within the following weeks, which include the RMAC All-Academic and All-Conference teams.
-BHSUAthletics.com-
