SPEARFISH, S.D.- The Black Hills State Yellow Jackets (3-5) start RMAC play this weekend with a trip to Southwestern Colorado to face the Fort Lewis Skyhawks (6-1) and the Western Colorado Mountaineers (1-7). The Green and Gold are coming off a 3-1 tournament in Minot, N.D. and will look to keep the momentum going as they enter the crucial stage of their season.
 
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO:
 
Date/Time/Location: Fort Lewis: Friday, September 19 at 6 PM in the Whalen Gymnasium in Durango Colorado.
Western Colorado: Saturday, September 20 at 5 PM in the Paul Wright Gym in Gunnison, Colorado.
Tickets: Tickets for each match can be found in 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 pass ($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 STORYLINES

• Black Hills State is entering RMAC play 3-5 and ranked 10^th in the conference. They are coming off a 3-1 tournament at the 1^st International Bank Homecoming Classic in Minot, N.D. where they beat Brandon University, Minot State, and UMary. The Yellow Jackets got their first win in the DuBose era and were able to break the streak of ten straight losses dating back to last season.
• BHSU was close with their opponents in every stat category except for one. BHSU only 60 attack errors in 519 attempts, while their opponents had 89 errors in 520 attempts. This gave BHSU a team attack percentage in the Minot tournament of .189 and their opponents had a team attack percentage of .127.
• The Yellow Jackets were able to capitalize on a few key areas and are ranked ninth in total aces, total digs, and opponent hitting percentage, and they are eighth in total assists, which they are also ranked 84^th in the nation in.
• Black Hills State was predicted to finish 15^th in the conference in the preseason RMAC Coaches' Poll after finishing 15^th in the conference last season.
• 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 94 kills which is fifth in the RMAC and 82^nd in the country and also ranks fifth in attempts with 270. She's seventh in kills per set with 3.13 and eighth in attacks per set with 9.00. Freeland had had ten or more kills in four of the eight matches this season. She also is second on the team in digs with 52, is leading the team in receptions and points with 197 and 103.0. She is coming off an All-Tournament Team appearance in Minot where she led the team in kills with 41 and had 26 digs and three blocks.  
• Libero Ellie Thomas has been one of the top Liberos in the RMAC this year. She ranks fifth in total digs with 125 and seventh in digs per set with 4.17. She also has six aces including a career high five in the matchup versus Augustana. Thomas has had 15 or more digs in four of the eight games and has reached ten in all of them. She is coming off a 68 dig weekend in Minot with 63 receptions.  
• BHSU is running a two-setter system, so Sydnie Tuioti-Mariner and Elena Atkinson are both taking on setting duties this year. Tuioti-Mariner is coming off a 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 and is leading on the season with 153 to Tuioti-Mariner's 97 combining 250 assists between the two of them. They have also combined for 70 digs.
• Jaeda Davis-Golliher has been the top middle for BHSU, she leads the team with 16 total blocks while also having 51 kills and seven aces. She has had a block in all but two games and had four in the matchup versus UMary this past weekend. She has had three or more kills in every match including a season high of nine in the first matchup versus UMary. She had 25 kills and six blocks in the Minot tournament.
• 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 192-234 record with two WAC Coach of the Year awards and one NCAA Division 1 Tournament appearance.

 
FORT LEWIS STORYLINES

• The Fort Lewis Skyhawks are 6-1 this season facing almost all Lone Star Conference opponents. They are coming off a 3-0 weekend at the Lubbock Christian Tournament where they won two matches in five set thrillers and then won the third in four sets. They played a combined 14 sets over the weekend and out-attacked opponents 196 to 177. The only match they've lost this year was to Eastern New Mexico in five sets two weekends ago.
• The Skyhawks rank top 40 in a lot of categories. These include 20^th in digs per set (18.14), 20^th in team attacks per set (39.21), 26^th in total digs (526), 35^th in win-loss percentage (.857) and 35^th in team attacks (1,137). In all but win-loss percentage they are ranked second in the RMAC in the rest of the categories. They are, however, bottom of the conference in total blocks only averaging 1.03 blocks per set and having 30 blocks total this year.
• Fort Lewis was picked to finish 11^th in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 59 points, they are now sitting in fourth with a 6-1 non-conference record.
• Sophomore DS Emery Pomroy has been the best libero in the conference this year so far. Despite only having one dig in her first game, she leads the conference in digs with 142 and digs per set with 5.26. She was just named RMAC Defensive Player of the Week for her performance in Lubbock where she had 69 digs over three games and had 27 digs and 24 digs in the final two. She has reached 20 digs in five of the seven games she's played in.
• Fort Lewis also runs a two-setter system, but Arianna Reyna has been the top one for them so far. She has 165 assists with 5.69 assists per set. She reached 20 or more assists in five of the seven games including a 40-assist game last weekend versus Lubbock Christian and a 32-assist game versus Eastern New Mexico. She is coming off a tournament where she had 95 assists in three games. She also has 50 digs including 11 in their most recent match versus Southwestern Oklahoma.
• The kill leader for FLC is Cambria Freymuth who has 74 kills this season. She has had ten or more kills in four games this season including 20 versus Lubbock Christian. She also had a season-high 18 digs in that game and it was her fifth game with double-digit digs this season. She is second on the team with 78 digs and also nine aces.
• This is head coach Justin Wong's first season with the Skyhawks and he has a 6-1 record so far after leaving D1's George Washington to come take the job.

 
SERIES HISTORY

• Fort Lewis leads the series 4-9 and has won four straight games versus the Yellow Jackets dating back to 2020. The Yellow Jackets won a set in their most recent matchup but fell 3-1.

 
WESTERN COLORADO STORYLINES

• Western Colorado is sitting at 1-7 after their first two tournaments of the year. They are coming out of the UCCS tournament 1-3, where besides the match they won, they were 0-9 in the other sets in the tournament. They are 4-21 in sets this season and have been outkilled 314-241 and have 54 more errors than their opponents.
• Western Colorado is ranked outside the top 10 in the RMAC in every category except for aces per set where they are ranked seventh in the conference with a mark of 1.60.
• The Mountaineers were picked to finish 12^th in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' poll. They are currently ranked 13^th with the 1-7 non-conference record.
• Olivia Rolseth is the top attacker for the Mountaineers. She is currently leading the team in kills with 75 which ranks 13^th in the conference and is also ranked seventh in the conference in total attacks with 255 and is second in attacks per set with 10.20. She has had five games of ten or more kills this year and is coming off a tournament where she had 37 kills in four games including 14 versus Millersville in their win.
• The other key player for Western is Galatia Andrew, the libero, who has a team-leading 82 digs this year. She has had double-digit digs in five of the eight games this year. She had 18 digs in the loss to Texas A&M International in the opening game of the season.
• Head coach Sonia Morales-Jones is entering her first season as head coach of the Mountaineers, but has 10 years of head coaching experience at Benedictine Mesa, where she came from and has a career-record of 173-105 and has only one losing record in her career.

 
SERIES HISTORY

• The Yellow Jackets are 7-8 in the series history versus Western and have lost six of the last seven matchups versus the Mountaineers including four in a row entering Saturday's game. The Yellow Jackets will have a chance to tie up the series.
• Western Colorado beat BHSU 3-0 in Gunnison in last year's matchup.