Date/Time/Location: Augustana: Thursday, September 4 at 5 PM, Saint Martin’s: Friday, September 5 at 11 AM, UMary: Friday, September 5 at 3 PM, #25 Northern State: Saturday, September 6 at 3 PM. All games will be played in the Chicoine Center in Chadron, Nebraska. 

Tickets: Fans wanting to attend the Eagle Classic can purchase day passes for Thursday, Friday and Saturday that will allow access to all games on a particular day for $10 (adult) or $5 (child/senior/military), or purchase a Classic 3-day pass for $25 (adult) or $10 (child/senior/military) that will provide access to all Eagle Classic matches. They can be purchased 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 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 enters this season with a room full of veterans and a team with a new coach as they go to face Augustana, Saint Martin’s, UMary, and Northern State at the Eagle Classic. BHSU finished last year with a 5-21 (1-13 RMAC) record.
• BHSU were a very good defensive team last year ranking 59th in the country and second in the RMAC in digs per set with 16.79. The Yellow Jackets were also ranked 54th in the country and fifth in the RMAC in attacks attempted per set with 37.67.
• 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.
• Jaeda Davis-Golliher and Randi Wellhoefer are both returning for their graduate seasons and will be the wall in the middle for the Yellow Jackets. Last year, the pair combined for 135 total blocks and 278 total kills. Wellhoefer ranked sixth in the RMAC in blocks per set (.96) and ninth in the RMAC in total blocks with 90. She had a block in all but three games last year including nine games with five or more and a nine-block game versus Fort Lewis. Davis-Golliher had a block in all but six games last year and had a five-block game versus Colorado School of Mines
• Starting setter Sydnie Tuioti-Mariner will also be making a return for her redshirt junior season and had 653 assists last year and had 215 total digs. She ranked ninth in the conference in assists and eighth in assists per set with 6.80. She had 20 digs in 17 games and 10 digs in 11 games last season. She had 48 assists in game two versus New Mexico Highlands and had 18 digs versus Montana State Billings.
• Libero Ellie Thomas is the final player who played all 96 sets last season that is returning. She finished last season with 437 digs, which ranked seventh in the conference and 4.55 digs per set, which ranked fourth in the RMAC. She had double digit digs in 23 of 26 games and reached 20 kills in nine games last season including a 31-dig game versus New Mexico Highlands.
• 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 189-233 record with two WAC Coach of the Year awards and one NCAA Division 1 Tournament appearance.

• Augustana is coming off a season where they went 13-15 (9-9 NSIC) and finished ninth in the NSIC conference. They had a stretch in the middle of the year where they lost eight of nine games which brought their conference record down.
• They were one of the top teams in the country in blocking last year. They ranked 22nd in the country and second in the conference with 2.41 blocks per set and were ranked 28th in the country and third in the NSIC in total blocks with 262.5.
• The Vikings were picked to finish 10th in the NSIC Volleyball Preseason Coaches’ Poll with 110 points just behind Minnesota State and just ahead of Jamestown.
• One of the big returners for the Vikings in 6’1” MB/OH Sydney Tims. The Sioux Falls, S.D. product played in all 28 matches for Augustana last year and had 132 kills, 40 aces, and 111 total blocks. She had a block in all but one game and had five or more in nine games last season including a nine-block performance versus Northern State.
• Maya Wente is the other big returner for the Vikings. She led the team in kills and blocks. Wente finished last season with 323 kills and 125 total blocks. She had almost 400 points. She had 21 kills and seven blocks in a game versus Minot State last year. She had five or more blocks in 13 games last season and had ten or more kills in 17 games last year. She was 33rd in the country and third in the NSIC in total blocks in 2024.
• Dr. Jennifer Jacobs will be entering her seventh season as head coach of the Vikings and has a 116-89 record but has had two losing seasons in a row with her going 24-31 over the past two seasons.

Series History

• The Yellow Jackets have faced Augustana three times since joining D2 and have only won one set versus them in the game in 2015. They haven’t faced the Vikings since 2017.

Saint Martin’s Storylines

• Saint Martin’s is coming off a 6-20 (4-14 GNAC) season where they finished in ninth place in their conference. They lost 22 of their final 25 sets of the season and won one of their final ten games. They will look to bounce back this year with a new head coach.
• Saint Martin’s was in the top half of their conference in aces per set last season with 1.60. They also ranked in the top half in total aces with 158.
• They were picked to finish ninth once again in the GNAC Volleyball Preseason Coaches’ Poll with 21 points just behind Seattle Pacific and just ahead of Montana State Billings.
• The top returner for Saint Martin’s is junior outside hitter Emily Garten. She was an All-GNAC Honorable Mention back in 2023 and was named to the Preseason All-GNAC Team this year. She is coming off a year where she led the conference and ranked 26th in the country in aces per set with .54. She also ranked 36th in the country and third in the GNAC in total aces. She also led the team with 248 kills and 225 digs.
• The other key player for the Saints is going to be Emmy Hansen who started all 26 games last year and had 244 kills and 195 digs. She had ten or more kills in 13 games last season and had a 21-dig game versus Colorado School of Mines last year.
• Head coach Haley Domeck enters her first season as head coach for the Saints. She was at Division III Linfield University before taking this job.

Series History

• BHSU and Saint Martin’s have only faced off one time with that being a five-set thriller that the Saints pulled out on this day (September 4) in 2021. It was a neutral site game in Billings where the Jackets won the first two sets but couldn’t get a third. BHSU will look to even the series on Friday.

UMary Storylines

• UMary is coming off a year where they went 4-22 (2-16 NSIC) and finished 14th in the NSIC conference. They enter this season trying to snap an eight-game losing streak carrying back to last season.
• The Marauders were picked to finish 14th this season in the NSIC Volleyball Preseason Coaches’ Poll with 42 points just ahead of Minnesota Crookston and just behind Bemidji State.
• The big returner for UMary is senior setter Maddy Freed. Freed was named the player to watch for the Marauder’s in the NSIC Coaches’ Poll. She had 843 assists last season, ranked seventh in the conference and had 9.16 assists per set which also ranked seventh in the NSIC. She had over 20 assists in all but three games last year and reached 30 assists in 13 games including a massive game where she had 56 assists versus MSU Moorhead. She also had 17 digs in a game versus Minnesota Crookston.
• The other top returner for UMary is senior Gabby Caskey who led the team in kills last year with 209. She also led the team in blocks with 44. She had double digit kills in nine games last year and had a block in all but three.
• Head coach Rob Frost will begin his tenure at UMary this season with ten years of head coaching experience at three different schools. He spent most of his career at Mary Hardin-Baylor a DIII school in Texas where he went to NCAA DIII Tournament Sweet 16 in back-to-back years in 2017 and 2018. He made three national tournaments overall. He has never had a losing record in any season he’s coached and has a 216-77 record.

Series History

• The Green and Gold have a chance to even the series versus UMary on Friday. The series currently sits at 9-10 and BHSU has won six of the last seven matchups versus the Marauders.
• The Marauders broke the six game win streak BHSU had going in 2023 when the pulled off a 3-2 win over the Jackets in their most recent matchup.

• Northern State enters the season ranked 25th in the AVCA Coaches’ Poll. They finished last year with a 21-7 (12-6 NSIC) record and finished one spot outside of the NCAA DII Tournament. They were ranked ninth in the Central Region standings last year. They had two top 15 upsets last year when they beat #10 Wayne State (NE) in five sets and then upset #12 Southwest Minnesota State in four sets in the first round of the NSIC Tournament. They also beat #25 Minnesota Duluth earlier in the season.
• Northern State was ranked top 40 in four categories last year. They were ranked #24 in blocks per set (2.4), 33 in W-L percentage (.750), #33 in hitting percentage (.241), and #35 in digs per set (17.70).
• They were picked to finish fifth in the NSIC Preseason Coaches’ Poll with 170 points just behind Wayne State (NE) and ahead of Sioux Falls.
• Their top returning player is libero Abby (Meister) Schauer who was ranked ninth in the country in digs per set (5.67) last year and 25th in total digs (578). She had 15 games last season where she had 20 or more digs and had 10 or more in all but one game. Her season high was 31 digs versus Winona State.
• Graduate Natalia Szybinska is the top returning kill leader for Northern State. She had 329 kills last season and started 26 of 28 games for the Wolves. She had 15 games with over ten kills last year and two games with 20 kills versus Augustana and Southwest Minnesota State in the NSIC Tournament game.

Series History

• Northern State has won all four matches since 2012 versus the Yellow Jackets and have not lost a set in those head-to-heads. The Yellow Jackets will look to end that streak on Saturday.