MINOT, N.D.- Black Hills State Yellow Jackets (3-5) were able to finish the 1^st International Bank Homecoming Classic with a split on Friday. They were able to beat the home team Minot State 3-0 in the morning and then fell to the Canadian National Champions Manitoba Bisons 3-0. The Yellow Jackets were led by Emily Freeland who had 22 kills today including 15 in the loss versus Manitoba.
 
QUICK DETAILS GAME 1
Score: Black Hills State 3, Minot State 0
Team Records: Black Hills State (3-4), Minot State (1-6)
Attendance: 85
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Yellow Jackets began the first set with a  7-4 lead with kills from Randi Wellhoefer, Freeland, Mianna Cardenas, and Carsyn Mettler as well as an ace from Jaeda Davis-Golliher. Minot State won three in a row to tie it at 7-7. Wellhoefer and Izzy Abril would get kills to help BHSU regain the lead 10-7 before MSU went on a 4-0 run to take a 11-10 lead. After some back and forth Minot would hold the lead at 14-13 when the Yellow Jackets would go on a 5-0 run with four Beaver attack errors to make it 18-14. It would never get closer than two points until Paulina Kowalska would get a kill to make it 22-21. The teams would split the next five points with Mettler getting a kill to end the set at 25-23, which gave BHSU a 1-0 lead in the match.
• The second set was all BHSU. Black Hills State won the first ten points of the set with Sydnie Tuioti-Mariner serving. Tuioti-Mariner would have four aces in this stretch and never allowed Minot State to have a solid return. Davis-Golliher and Wellhoefer would capitalize on a lot of these swings by each having two kills during the run. Minot State would fight back getting seven of eight points to cut the lead to 13-9 before Freeland got a kill, an ace, and the Beavers had two bad sets to bring the Yellow Jackets lead to 17-9. Minot State cut the lead to 18-13 before the Green and Gold would win eight of the next nine points with Tuioti-Mariner getting her fifth ace of the set and Davis-Golliher would end it with a kill to make it 25-14.
• After BHSU started the third set with three of the first four points, Minot State would take the early 8-4 lead. The Yellow Jackets would win eight of the next ten with two kills and an ace from Freeland, a kill from Wellhoefer, and another one from Davis-Golliher to make it 12-10. The next nine points were played where neither team won two in a row to make the score 16-15 BHSU and then the Green and Gold won nine of the next 11 with six attack errors from Minot State, and three kills from Freeland, Wellhoefer, and Abril which gave the Yellow Jackets a 25-17 win and the 3-0 match win. It was the first time since early 2023 that BHSU had won three games in a row.

 
BLACK HILLS STATE STATISTICAL LEADERS
Sydnie Tuioti-Mariner: 14 assists, 5 aces, 5 digs
Randi Wellhoefer: 9 kills, 3 digs
Emily Freeland: 7 kills, 2 aces, 5 digs, 1 block
 
QUICK DETAILS GAME 2
Score: Black Hills State 0, Manitoba 3
Team Records: Black Hills State (3-5), Manitoba (4-0)
Attendance: 50
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Manitoba started this set with a 10-5 lead with four of the five BHSU points being kills by Freeland. The Yellow Jackets would win seven of the next nine points to tie it up at 12-12 with two kills from Wellhoefer. The match would start going back and forth until Manitoba took a 16-15 lead. BHSU would take three straight points to get a 18-16 lead before the Bison won four in a row to take a 20-18 lead. Two more kills from Wellhoefer would keep BHSU only down 21-20 before Manitoba would win four of the next five points to take the set on a service error.
• Yellow Jackets won seven of the first eight points of set two with five kills from Emily Freeland. The Bison would answer by going on a 8-0 run to take a 9-7 lead. The Green and Gold would win four of the next five with two Davis-Golliher kills to take a 11-10 lead before Manitoba would win seven of the next eight to take a 17-12 lead. BHSU would as able to get the lead down to 20-18 with two more kills from Freeland. After the Bison grew the gap back to five, the Jackets would take four in a row to make it 23-22 but they couldn't tie it up and a service error once again wins the set for the Bison and gives them a 2-0 lead.  
• The Bison began the third set with an early 8-3 lead and BH just never recovered. The closest BHSU got was 10-7 before Manitoba won five in a row to make it 15-7. The Jackets kept fighting with Freeland and Wellhoefer getting kills to make it 15-10, before the Bison won four of the next five to set it at 19-11. BH won another three in a row with a kill from Mettler to make it 19-14 until Manitoba won four in a row to make it 23-14. Another kill by Mettler was all the Yellow Jackets got as the Bison would win back-to-back points to take the set 25-15 and the match 3-0.

 
BLACK HILLS STATE STATISTICAL LEADERS
Emily Freeland: 15 kills, 9 digs
Randi Wellhoefer: 8 kills, 5 digs, 2 blocks
Ellie Thomas: 18 digs

UP NEXT
Black Hills State will begin RMAC play with a road trip to Southwestern Colorado to face Fort Lewis and Western Colorado in Durango and Gunnison on September 19 and 20. It will be the last weekend away from home for the Jackets as they will make their home debut the next weekend.
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