Date/Time/Location: Saturday, October 4th at 2 PM in A2 Arena in Spearfish, S.D.

Tickets: Tickets for the match can be found at the link above

RMAC Network: Beginning in the 2025-26 season the RMAC Network will now move to Pay-Per-View. Fans can purchase a single game ($10), monthly ($25) or annual subscription ($130). Individuals with bhsu.edu or yellowjackets.bhsu.edu email address can still take advantage of the Peak Pricing Promotion by using the code Y26-RMACEDU.

• Black Hills State is entering rivalry week 4-9 and ranked tied for 10th in the conference. They are coming off a 0-2 home weekend where they lost both matches to two of the best teams in the conference in three sets. The Yellow Jackets had one set in each match where they got to 20 or more points, with one set versus Colorado Christian being 26-24. They also just lost the first game of the RMAC Regional Pod versus rivals South Dakota Mines 3-1 on Tuesday night.
• BHSU had a very good weekend blocking with 10 total blocks versus their two opponents. This included six from Peyton McLeod and five from Izabel Abril. They also had seven aces in the matchup versus SDM.
• The Yellow Jackets were able to capitalize on a few key areas and are ranked ninth in total attacks (1,630), tenth in total blocks (72.0), tenth in blocks per set (1.67), tenth in aces per set (1.36), and tenth in total digs (657)
• Black Hills State was predicted to finish 15th in the conference in the preseason RMAC Coaches’ Poll after finishing 15th in the conference last season. They are currently sitting in a tie for tenth after a 1-3 start in conference play.
• Emily Freeland is having an incredible start to the season. After tying her career high in kills with 20 in the season opener versus Augustana, Freeland has continued to pile on the kills. She currently sits at 141 kills which is ninth in the RMAC and also ranks seventh in attempts with 403. She’s ninth in kills per set with 3.00 and tenth in attacks per set with 8.57. Freeland has had ten or more kills in six of the 13 matches this season. She also is second on the team in digs with 93 and is leading the team in receptions and points with 38 and 158.5. She had 16 kills this past weekend with 17 digs and five receptions to go along with it. She had eight kills in each match of the weekend. In the match versus the Hardrockers, she posted a double-double with 11 kills and 10 digs while adding two aces.
• Libero Ellie Thomas has been one of the top Liberos in the RMAC this year. She ranks second in total digs with 205 and third in digs per set with 4.36. She also has eight aces including a career high five in the matchup versus Augustana. Thomas has had 15 or more digs in six of the 13 games and has reached ten in all of them. She is coming off a 24-dig weekend this past weekend where she had 13 versus CSU Pueblo and 11 versus Colorado Christian. She then added another 14 versus the Hardrockers.
• BHSU is running a two-setter system, so Sydnie Tuioti-Mariner and Elena Atkinson are both taking on setting duties this year. Tuioti-Mariner had an All-Tournament honor in Minot after leading BHSU with 62 assists and also having seven aces including five in the game versus Minot State. Atkinson had 57 assists that weekend and is leading the season with 228 to Tuioti-Mariner’s 167 combining 395 assists between the two of them. They have also combined 133 digs. Tuioti-Mariner was the leader this past weekend with 27 assists to Atkinson’s 21 and they both had a combined 15 digs.
• Jaeda Davis-Golliher has been the top middle for BHSU, she leads the team with 29 total blocks while also having 73 kills and eight aces. She has had a block in all but three games and had three in the matchup versus CSUP this past weekend. She has had three or more kills in all but one match including a season high of ten in the game versus WCU. She had four kills, one ace, and three total blocks this past weekend at home. In the SDM game, she had four kills and two total blocks
• Head coach Grayson DuBose enters his first season with the Yellow Jackets but has 14 years of head coaching experience at the D1 level prior to joining BHSU. He was head coach at Utah State for all 14 years and had a 193-238 record with two WAC Coach of the Year awards and one NCAA Division 1 Tournament appearance.

• Chadron State sits at 4-9 and 1-3 in conference and were able to break a four-game losing streak in their most recent weekend beating Western Colorado 3-0 before dropping their first RMAC Regional Pod game to South Dakota Mines 0-3. The Eagles won one match over UMary in their home tournament before beating Upper Iowa and Minnesota Crookston in the Maverick Invite.
• The Eagles are ranked top 10 in the RMAC in three categories. They are ranked third and 45th in the country in team attacks per set (37.45), sixth in digs per set (15.45), and tenth in win-loss percentage (.333).
• CSC was picked to finish 13th in the RMAC in the Preseason Coaches’ Poll with 55 points, they currently sit in a tie for tenth with a 1-3 record.
• Mataya Ward in the kill leader for CSC. The Belle Fourche product currently sits at 113 kills with a .285 attack percentage. She ranks fourth in the RMAC in kills per set (3.40), fourth in points per set (3.78), and seventh in attacks per set (9.00). Ward has only played 11 of the 13 matches and has ten or more kills in seven of them with 17 in their match versus Upper Iowa. This past weekend she had 16 kills versus Western Colorado and another 11 versus SDM.
• Jillian Donovan has been one of the best setters in the RMAC this season with 368 kills, which ranks fifth in the conference. As a freshman, she ranks third in assists per set with 9.20. She has had 20 or more assists in all but two games this year with a 50-assist game versus Augustana in only her second game of her career. The past two games she’s combine for 69 assists with 43 versus WCU and 26 versus South Dakota Mines.
• Avery Lacy has been the top half of a solid digging duo. She leads the team with 168 digs and has ten or more digs in all but one match this year with 20 coming in the win over Upper Iowa. She ranks seventh in the RMAC with 3.95 digs per set. Lacy had a combined 26 assists over the past two games including 16 versus WCU.
• This is head coach Jennifer Stadler’s seventh year coaching the Eagles. She has a career 55-103 record in her career. She had a losing season last year after snapping a three-year winning season drought the previous year.

• BHSU is currently 14-27 all time versus the Eagles and have lost four straight matches leading up to this one.
• The Yellow Jackets lost in a five-set thriller last time these two teams faced in Chadron last season.