Date/Time/Location: Colorado Christian: Friday, September 26 at 6 PM in A2 Arena in Spearfish, S.D.

Western Colorado: Saturday, September 27 at 5:30 PM in A2 Arena

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 is entering their home debut 4-6 and ranked 9th in the conference. They are coming off a 1-1 opening RMAC weekend and have already matched their RMAC win total from last season. The Yellow Jackets got their first RMAC win of the DuBose era with the win over Western Colorado on Saturday.
• BHSU had a very good weekend blocking with 19 total blocks compared to opponents 12. They also barely edged out the Skyhawks and Mountaineers in digs with 119-118.
• The Yellow Jackets were able to capitalize on a few key areas and are ranked seventh in total aces and total attacks, eighth in opponent hitting percentage, and ninth in aces per set, win-loss percentage, digs, and total blocks.
• 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 ninth place at 1-1 in the RMAC.
• 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 114 kills which is seventh in the RMAC and also ranks seventh in attempts with 321. She’s tenth in kills per set with 3.08 and ninth in attacks per set with 3.49. Freeland had had ten or more kills in five of the ten matches this season. She also is second on the team in digs with 66 and is leading the team in receptions and points with 32 and 129.0. She is coming a 20-kill performance combined last weekend and had 14 digs, three blocks, and had a career-high four aces in the matchup versus Western Colorado
• Libero Ellie Thomas has been one of the top Liberos in the RMAC this year. She ranks third in total digs with 167 and second in digs per set with 4.51. She also has seven aces including a career high five in the matchup versus Augustana. Thomas has had 15 or more digs in six of the ten games and has reached ten in all of them. She is coming off a 42-dig weekend in Southwestern Colorado where she had a season-high 24 digs versus Fort Lewis and another 18 versus Western Colorado.
• 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 and is leading the season with 190 to Tuioti-Mariner’s 121 combining 311 assists between the two of them. They have also combined 108 digs. Atkinson was the leader this past weekend with 37 assists to Tuioti-Mariner’s 24 and they both had a combined 38 digs.
• Jaeda Davis-Golliher has been the top middle for BHSU, she leads the team with 24 total blocks while also having 65 kills and seven aces. She has had a block in all but two games and had four in both matchups this past weekend. She has had three or more kills in every match including a season high of ten in the game versus WCU. She had 14 kills, eight blocks, and four digs this past weekend.
• 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 193-235 record with two WAC Coach of the Year awards and one NCAA Division 1 Tournament appearance.

• The Colorado Christian Cougars are 7-3 and 2-0 in the RMAC after winning both of their opening weekend games in five-sets versus Regis and Chadron State. Christian’s only losses this year have come to two top 25 teams in Washburn and Grand Valley State as well as Davenport. They do however already have a signature win this season taking out Angelo State 3-0 when they were ranked #2 in the country at the time of the game.
• The Cougars rank top 70 in five categories so far this season. They rank 45th in blocks per set (2.28), 51st in total blocks (82.0), 61st in kills per set (13.03), 67th in assists per set (11.92), and 69th in win loss percentage (.700). They also rank second in the RMAC in aces per set (1.94), third in total aces (70), and fifth in total assists (429).
• Colorado Christian was picked to finish third in the RMAC with 162 points and three second place votes. They currently sit in a tie for first with five other teams at 2-0.
• Setter Krista Traynor has been one of the best setters in the RMAC with 318 assists in 10 games. She currently sits third in the RMAC and 40th in the country in total assists and fourth in the conference assists per set (8.83). She is coming off a major weekend where she was named RMAC Setter of the Week. She had 76 assists with 51 versus Chadron State. She has had at least 20 assists in every game, 25 assists in all but one and 30 or more four times this season.
• Kristina House has been the top libero for the Cougars. She has 141 digs which puts her sixth in the RMAC and is also ranked sixth in digs per set with 3.92. House had her first 20-dig game this season in the Chadron State match and had 32 overall. She has had ten digs in all matches this year and has reached 15 in three of them.
• The kill leader for CCU is Connelly Kilgore with 115 which puts her fifth in the RMAC with only one more kill than Freeland. She is sixth in kills and points per set with 3.19 and 3.65 respectively. She has had ten or more kills in seven games this year and is coming off a 31-kill performance this past weekend with 16 versus Chadron and 15 versus Regis. She also has 62 digs with 17 in the matchup versus Chadron.
• Renee Phillips has been a star on the net for CCU. She has 41 total blocks this year which ranks third in the RMAC and 47th in the country. She also has 1.14 blocks per set which puts her as the RMAC leader. She and her middle counterpart Janelle Deboer have combined for 73 blocks this year. Phillips has had a block in every match and just had six in the Regis game which allowed her to have a eight block weekend.
• This is head coach Bobby Blanken’s ninth year as head coach of the Cougars. He has a 110-113 record as head coach and is coming off his best season of his career so far going 19-11 last year.

Series History

• BHSU is currently losing the series 3-15 and have lost three straight games to Christian.
• Two of BHSU’s three wins have come since 2019.
• The last time these two faced each other, CCU won 3-0 in Lakewood late in the year last season.

• CSU Pueblo is entering this matchup versus BHSU 6-4 and 2-0 in the RMAC after sweeping Regis and Chadron State in straight sets. Two of Pueblo’s four losses came to top ten ranked West Texas A&M and the others came to Lubbock Christian and Oklahoma Baptist. The Thunderwolves are 1-12 in their four losses, but are 18-2 in their six wins.
• CSU Pueblo currently ranks in the top 50 in three categories. They are 31st and second in the RMAC in attacks per set (37.85), they are 33rd in digs per set (17.06) and are 45th in kills per set (13.33). They are also ranked fourth in the RMAC in blocks per set (2.03), and fifth in hitting percentage (.225).
• CSU Pueblo was picked to finish fifth in the RMAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll with 133 points and are currently in a tie for first with a 2-0 conference record after the opening weekend.
• Caelyn Gunn has been one of the best outside hitters in the entire country this year for the Thunderwolves. Gunn is second in the country and first in the RMAC in attacks per set (13.33), eighth in the country and first in the RMAC in kills per set (4.45), 12th in the country and first in the RMAC in total attacks (440), and 21st in the country and second in the RMAC in total kills (142). She also has 124 digs, which is only 13 short of the leaders on her team. Gunn has reached ten or more kills in nine of ten games this year and has reached 15 in five of those. Her season-high is 20 in a match versus Texas A&M International. She is coming off a quieter weekend, where she only had 22 kills including her first time not making ten kills this year. She also had 20 digs in the matchup versus TA&M Int and has had ten digs in six games this year. She had 20 digs last weekend over the two games.
• The other key player for CSUP is Elena Stankovic, their setter. Stankovic has 254 assists, which is fifth in the RMAC, but she has 9.41 assists per set, which is second in the conference and 41st in the country. She has had 30 assists in five games this year and has reached 20 in all but one. She was 39 versus Southwestern Oklahoma. This past weekend, she reached 30 assists in both games and combined 64 assists over the two days. She also had a five-ace game versus Eastern New Mexico.
• Head coach Jordan Bruere is in her first year with CSU Pueblo after spending the last two at Western Colorado where she brought the Mountaineers from 5-21 to 12-16 in one season. She has a 23-41 head coaching record and is 6-4 at CSU Pueblo.

SERIES HISTORY

• The Yellow Jackets are 4-11 versus the Thunderwolves and have lost seven straight entering this matchup. The last time BHSU beat CSUP was 2019. That was also the last time BHSU won a set versus Pueblo.
• BHSU lost 3-0 in the most recent matchup versus Pueblo 25-18, 25-19, 25-19.