SPEARFISH, S.D.- The Black Hills State Yellow Jackets (4-8 (1-3 RMAC)) are heading to Rapid City to face their rivals, the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers (2-10 (2-2 RMAC)). The Yellow Jackets will look to get back in the win column after losing both matches this past weekend at home and Coach Grayson DuBose will look to go 1-0 in his coaching career versus the rival Rockers. It will be the first of two meetings versus SDM this year.
 
Know Before You Go:
Date/Time/Location: Tuesday, September 30 at 7 PM in the King Center in Rapid City, 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 STORYLINES

• Black Hills State is entering rivalry week 4-8 and ranked tied for 10^th 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.
• 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
• The Yellow Jackets were able to capitalize on a few key areas and are ranked ninth in total blocks (72.0), ninth n match win-loss percentage (.333), tenth in blocks per set (1.67), and tenth in opponent hitting percentage (.208)
• 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. 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 130 kills which is eighth in the RMAC and also ranks tenth in attempts with 369. She's tenth in kills per set with 3.00 and 11th in attacks per set with 8.58. Freeland had had ten or more kills in five of the 12 matches this season. She also is second on the team in digs with 83 and is leading the team in receptions and points with 37 and 145.0. 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.
• Libero Ellie Thomas has been one of the top Liberos in the RMAC this year. She ranks second in total digs with 190 and third in digs per set with 4.42. 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 12 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.
• 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 211 to Tuioti-Mariner's 148 combining 359 assists between the two of them. They have also combined 123 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 27 total blocks while also having 69 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 4 kills, one ace, and three total blocks this past weekend at home.
• 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 193-237 record with two WAC Coach of the Year awards and one NCAA Division 1 Tournament appearance.

 
SOUTH DAKOTA MINES STORYLINES

• South Dakota Mines is 2-10 and 2-2 in RMAC play so far. They did not win a single non-conference game this season, however they faced four top 25 ranked teams during their non-RMAC play and were able to get set wins in almost all of them. There two RMAC wins this year are against Fort Lewis and Western Colorado, but they are just coming off a 0-2 weekend versus Colorado Christian and CSU Pueblo where they lost six of the eight stats
• The Hardrockers rank at the top 80 in three categories so far this season. They rank 70^th in team total attacks (1,676), 73^rd in team attacks per set (36.43), and total digs (687). They rank fourth, sixth, and third in the RMAC in each of those categories, while also ranking sixth in total blocks (88.0), blocks per set (1.91), and seventh in assists per set (11.59).
• South Dakota Mines was picked to finish fourth in the RMAC with 154 points and seven third place votes. They currently sit in a tie for seventh with a 2-2 record.
• Senior Libero Hannah Benes is the best libero in the RMAC this year. She has 206 digs which rank first in the RMAC and 50^th in the country. She also averages 4.48 digs per set, which rank second in the conference and 67^th in the country. Hannah Benes is the reigning RMAC Defensive Player of the Week for her performance in the two wins two weeks ago. She had 41 digs and three aces in those two matches. This past week she had another great outing by posting 27 digs versus CSU Pueblo and 37 digs over the weekend.
• Morgan Daugherty is the Hardrocker kills and blocks leader so far this year. She has 150 kills which puts her third in the RMAC, she has 3.26 kills per set, which is fifth in the conference, and she is doing so with a .257 attack percentage. She has 10 or more kills in seven games this year and three of the last four and has reached a season high 22 kills twice this year, including against CSU Pueblo last weekend. She also leads the team in total blocks with 26.0. She has a block in all but two games and has reached five total blocks twice this season.
• Lexi Glendenning is the other half of the 1-2 punch for SDM. She has 146 kills this year which puts her fourth in the RMAC right behind Daugherty. She is also third in the RMAC in total attacks (438) and attacks per set (9.73). She has had ten or more kills in all but three games this season and also had a season-high 22 kills versus Pueblo. She also has 17 blocks, 77 digs, and seven aces.
• Hannah Joseph is the top setter for the Rockers and one of the top setters in the RMAC. She is second in the conference and 45^th in the country in total assists with 389 and is fifth in the RMAC in assists per set (8.64). She had a career-high 55 assists versus Fort Lewis a couple of weeks ago and had 54 this past weekend versus CSU Pueblo. She has had 20 assists in all but two games this season. She is also second on the team in digs with 104, which she had 14 last weekend.
• This is head coach Lauren Prochazka's 8^th season at SDM where she has a career record of 81-108 at Mines. Her total career record is 123-131, which includes the two seasons she spent at Minnesota Morris.

 
Series History

• BHSU is up on the rival series 37-30 over SDM. However, South Dakota Mines has won five of the last seven and three in a row.
• The Yellow Jackets lost both matches last year 3-0 and haven't won a set versus the Hardrockers since 2023.