SPEARFISH, S.D.- The Black Hills State Yellow Jackets (9-15 (4-8 RMAC)) are finishing off their season with one last trip, where they will head to the Western part of the RMAC and face the Colorado Mesa Mavericks (19-5 (10-2 RMAC)) on Friday and then will head into Utah to face the Westminster Griffins (4-16 (3-9 RMAC)) on Saturday.
 
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO:
Date/Time/Location: Colorado Mesa: Friday, November 6 at 6 PM in Brownson Arena in Grand Junction, Colo.
Westminster: Saturday, November 7 at 4 PM in Behnken Field House in Salt Lake City, Utah
Live Stream: RMAC Network (Pay-Per-View)
Tickets: Tickets can be purchased at the links above.
 
BLACK HILLS STATE STORYLINES:

• Black Hills State is now 9-15 (4-8 RMAC) BHSU went 0-2 this past weekend as they fell to South Dakota Mines in four sets despite winning the first and then lost to Colorado School of Mines in three sets despite having a lead late in the first set. The Yellow Jackets are officially eliminated from RMAC playoff contention with those two losses. BHSU is still looking for their first 10-win season since 2021 and will have a chance to do that this weekend.
• The Yellow Jackets were able to have a 4-4 non-conference schedule after taking out MSU Billings, Western New Mexico, UMary, and Upper Iowa in the non-conference tournaments. BHSU was able to get revenge on UMary, who beat them early in the season as they produced the best hitting percentage in BHSU's D2 history, hitting .452 over the course of the game with only six attack errors.
• The Yellow Jackets entered the season fresh off a season where they had the most wins in a season since 2021 and the most conference wins since 2022. The Yellow Jackets went 6-20 (2-12 RMAC) last season. They went 3-1 in the 1^st International Bank Homecoming Classic before entering RMAC play and pulled out two wins over Chadron, one of them in the regional pod, and a win over Western Colorado in regular conference play.
• The Green and Gold have played in seven five set matches going 5-2 this season in such matches. BHSU went 2-2 in five setters last year and are 44-42 since joining D2 in matches that go five sets.
• The Yellow Jackets win over Fort Lewis was the first time since 2021 that BHSU had won their RMAC opener.
• The Yellow Jackets win over Colorado Christian was the first time BHSU has beaten CCU in Lakewood. They were 0-10 in their previous matchups at CCU.
• 6-6 was the latest BHSU has been at .500 in the D2 era passing 2013 where BHSU was 5-5.
• BHSU was able to go 1-1 in the RMAC Power Pod and earn a crucial confidence boosting win over Western Colorado when they pulled off the reverse sweep and took down the Mountaineers 3-2 with 15 blocks and 15 aces. The 15 aces were tied for the most aces in a single match in the D2 era for BHSU. They tied a match versus Minot State in 2023.
• The Yellow Jackets are ranked in the top nine in the RMAC in five categories. They are ranked sixth in team aces (137), seventh in aces per set (1.49), eight in hitting percentage (.193), and ninth in tam digs (1,362), and ninth in total attacks (3,273).
• The Yellow Jackets are featuring a pretty new team this year. They are only bringing back three players who started 15 or more games last year and only have five that started more than ten. They graduated five key seniors for the team last year and are bringing in six freshman and one transfer.
• BHSU was projected to finish 14^th in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 43 points, just ahead of Chadron State and one point behind Western Colorado. They are now tied for tenth in the RMAC at 4-8 with Western Colorado.
• The Yellow Jackets top three hitters are all within range of each other. Carsyn Mettler is the top hitter for BHSU. Mettler, who has remained consistent now has a hitting percentage of .300 in 13 out of 24 games this year. She is leading the team in kills with 277, a team-high .280 hitting percentage, and has 31.0 total blocks. She has reached ten kills in 15 games this year, including 13 of the last 16. She had a .320 hitting percentage against #6 Washburn, and then a .455 hitting percentage versus UMary. She had a .440 hitting percentage versus WCU. She had 18 kills this past weekend. She had 17 kills with a .400 hitting percentage and three blocks versus Chadron. She had a career-high 23 kills versus Chadron with a .377 hitting percentage and two blocks. She had 13 kills and a .387 hitting percentage versus Regis. She had 17 kills and a .395 hitting percentage versus Chadron. This past week, on Tuesday, she had 15 kills with a .333 hitting percentage, and then had 11 kills and a .400 hitting percentage against CSM.
• The Yellow Jackets top three hitters are all within range of each other. Izzy Saiki has been one of the top of BHSU's trio this year. The senior from Thronton, Colo. is in the midst of a career year. She is second on the team and was the first one to 200 kills with 235 kills with a 2.94 kills per set mark. She is also leading the team in aces and is fourth in the RMAC with 31. She has 218 digs and 16 total blocks. She has 12 double-digit kill games including five of the last seven games. She had a career-high 21 kills versus MSU Denver. Saiki had her third double-double of the year with 18 kills and 15 digs versus CCU. The 15 digs were a career-high and the five aces during that game were also a career-high. She had another double-double versus Chadron with 10 kills and a season-high 17 digs. She had her career-high 21 kills versus MSUD and then had her sixth double-double of the season versus UCCS with 10 kills and 12 digs. This past weekend, she had 28 kills and 22 digs including 17 kills and 16 digs versus NMHU. Against Chadron, the second time, she had 13 kills and a team-high 25 digs. The third time versus Chadron, she had 12 kills and 17 digs.
• Zoie Husman has started 23 of 24 games this year and after a fantastic tournament in Sioux Falls, she is third on the team with 219 kills and third with 29 aces. She is second with 222 digs. She also has 43 blocks, which is third on the team. Her best game of the year came versus Fort Lewis where she had her third double-double of her career with 21 kills and 13 digs. The 21 kills were career-high and her first time reaching 20 kills. She also had a career-high 24.5 points versus FLC as well as two total blocks. She had 17 kills versus UMary and a .667 hitting percentage, which was also a career high. She had a 17 kill, 13 dig game versus WNMU, with a career-high three total blocks. She had her second double of her season with a 13 kill, 15 dig game versus Upper Iowa, and tied her career high with three blocks. This past week, she had two double-doubles with 12 kills and 13 digs versus Chadron and 17 kills and 11 digs versus WCU.
• Elena Atkinson and Emma Kruger have had great seasons. After combining for 68 assists last weekend, they combined for 57 this weekend with Kruger leading 29 assists to 27. Atkinson sits atop with 469 assists and has averaged 5.10 assists per set this season, while Kruger has 402 and has averaged 4.52. Atkinson's best game came against Chadron State, where she had 31 assists, which the second most in her entire career. She had a .470 set percentage, which was the second-best on the year, only behind MSUB, where she had a .514 set percentage. Atkinson is second on the team in aces with 29 and set a career-high for aces with seven versus Regis. Kruger's best game came against Fort Lewis, where she had a career-high 31 assists and 7 digs with an insane .508 set percentage. She just had a massive 30 assists, 22-dig game versus CCU with a .441 set percentage. When BHSU broke the record for attack percentage in a game in the D2 era against WCU, she had 25 assists with an impressive .568 set percentage. They are ranked ninth and 14^th in the RMAC in total assists.
• Izabel Abril has been one of the other players to start all 24 games this year. Abril is sitting at 135 kills and is now second on the team with 52.0 total blocks. She had her Yellow Jacket career-high with 14 kills versus Fort Lewis, where she had a .417 attack percentage, and four total blocks, which is just her second time since joining BHSU reaching ten kills. She matched that mark a week later versus Christian, where she had 14 kills on a .458 hitting percentage and four total blocks. She had eight total blocks last weekend with five versus MSU Denver.
• Peyton McLeod has continued her solid career with 24 starts in 24 games this year. She is leading the team in blocks with 77.0 and has 120 kills. McLeod had a career-high 12 kills versus MSU Denver with four blocks and a .333 hitting percentage. She's had nine kills four times, but MSU Denver was her first double-digit kill game of her career. She had seven blocks versus Chadron. She had seven kills and two blocks versus Regis. She had a career-high in blocks in a game versus Western with 11 blocks
• Keira Thompson has been the top libero for BHSU this year. The junior from Lakewood, Colo. who is in her second season as a Yellow Jacket is currently leading the team with 263 digs, reaching the 100-dig mark against Upper Iowa and the 200-dig mark versus Chadron. She is averaging 3.13 digs per set and has ten aces as well. Thompson had her career-high of 29 digs versus Fort Lewis, which passed her previous career-high set in the game before versus Upper Iowa of 21. She averaged 5.8 digs per set. Last weekend, Thompson earned her first RMAC Defensive Player of the Week award for having 44 digs in seven sets averaging 6.29 digs per set and reaching 20 digs in each game including 24 digs versus CCU and 20 digs in only three sets versus CSUP. She had 22 digs in her start against Western Colorado this past weekend.
• Head coach Grayson DuBose enters his second season with the Yellow Jackets and has a BHSU record of 15-35 (6-20 RMAC) but has 14 years of head coaching experience at the D1 level prior to joining BHSU. He was head coach at Utah State for 14 years and has a 204-268 career record. He also earned two WAC Coach of the Year awards and one NCAA Division 1 Tournament appearance. DuBose picked up his 200^th career win against Fort Lewis in the five-set thriller.

 
#RV COLORADO MESA STORYLINES

• Colorado Mesa currently sits at 19-5 and 10-2 in the conference. They have won three in a row versus the bottom teams in the RMAC and have also won 13 of their last 16 since RMAC play started. Their sole losses this season have been to #RV UCCS, #RV Colorado School of Mines, and #25 Colorado School of Mines (RMAC Power Pod). They had a major conference win versus #19 MSU Denver early in the season and also took out CSU Pueblo and CCU.
• Their non-conference schedule was incredibly successful as CMU went 6-2 in the two non-conference tournaments. CMU started their year off with a massive win where they swept #7 Nebraska Kearney before falling to #RV Dallas Baptist and Biola in the tournament in Dallas. They then swept their home tourney getting wins over Sul Ross State, Fort Hays State, Fairmont State, and Adams State.
• The Mavericks are 9-1 this year in Brownson Arena. The sole loss was that conference game versus #RV Colorado School of Mines where they lost in three sets. Last year, Mesa went 7-2 at home last year that included a top five win over the eventual national champions MSU Denver and then #RV UCCS.
• The Mavericks are top three in the RMAC in six stats. They are eighth in the country and leading the RMAC in hitting percentage (.284). They are also leading in team aces (163), and aces per set (1.94). They are second in match win/loss percentage (.792), opponent hitting percentage (.169), and third in assists per set (12.44).
• The Mavericks were picked to finish second in the RMAC with 169 points just ahead of CSM and MSU Denver and just behind UCCS. They received one first place vote, five second place votes, and three third place votes. Last year, they finished tied for fourth with a 17-11 (10-4 RMAC) record and this year, they are tied for second with CSM at 10-2.
• Ashlyn Tafoya has been one of the best players for Mesa for this year. She was named to the Preseason All-Conference team after being named Second Team All-RMAC last season. She is currently leading the team in assists with 464 and is ninth in the conference in total assist. She is second on the team with 27 aces and third on the team with 126 digs. She's had 20 assists or more in 11 games this year and has reached double-digits in all of them. She had a season-high 31 assists versus UCCS and this past weekend, she had 33 total assists with 16 versus Chadron and 17 versus Regis.
• Ashlee Macias is the other top player for Mesa. She does basically everything for the Mavericks. She leads the team in aces with 37, aces per set with .45, total kills with 244, kills per set with 2.98, and points per set with 3.55. The junior has 12 games with double-digit kills and has five double-doubles including a 16 kills, 17 digs performance versus Nebraska Kearney in the season opener and a season-high 19 kills and 13 digs versus Fort Lewis. She won Offensive Player of the Week in week six for that FLC performance also 12 kills versus WCU with a .452 hitting percentage over the week. This past week, she had a 17 kill, 14 dig performance versus Chadron and then had nine kills and nine digs versus Regis with eight total aces on the week including a season-high five versus Regis.
• Maya Grant has been the top libero for CMU. She currently sits just one dig shy of 300 at 299 and has averaged 3.56 digs per set. She also has 22 aces. After a rough start to the season, she has had double-digit digs in 14 of her last 19 games. She had a season-high 27 digs last weekend versus Chadron and also had 21 the weekend before versus Westminster. She also had four aces this past weekend.
• Head Coach Austin Albers is in his second season with Mesa and eighth overall as a head coach. He has a 36-16 record as a Maverick and has  a 129-77 record overall as a head coach as he spent the previous six years with CSU Pueblo. Albers is the son of former long-time BHSU AD Jhett Albers.

 
SERIES HISTORY

• Since joining D2, BHSU is 2-13 versus the Mavericks and have lost nine-straight dating back to 2016. BHSU took down Mesa twice in four matchups in 2016 and in 2013.
• The last time BHSU faced them was at home last November and the Mavericks won in three sets.

   
WESTMINSTER STORYLINES

• Westminster is currently sitting at 4-20 and 3-9 in the RMAC. The Griffins ended what was a seven-game losing streak with a  sweep in Chadron on Saturday to get them their third RMAC win of the year. The other wins include a five-set thriller versus Western in Salt Lake City and a three-set sweep of Highlands to begin RMAC play. They put on a show versus CSC winning the first set 30-28 before winning set two 25-20 and set three 25-11. They also lost to Regis in five sets last Friday as well. They won sets two and four but lost 15-10 in set five.
• Their non-conference schedule was a little tough, they went 1-7 with the sole win being at the TWU Volleyfest where they beat Stanislaus State. They were able to take Arkansas Tech to five sets and won one set each versus William Jewell, #6 Washburn, and Southwest Nazarene. However, they got swept by #15 Central Oklahoma, UT Dallas, and Oklahoma Christian.
• The Griffins are 2-3 at home this year with wins over Highlands and Western, but losses to Mesa, Mines, and Adams. Last year, they went 4-5 at home.
• The Griffins are ranked top nine in the conference in four stats. They are ranked fourth in aces per set (1.57), eighth in service aces (135), ninth in blocks per set (1.90), and ninth in total blocks (163.0).
• The Griffins were picked to finish ninth in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 83 points just behind South Dakota Mines and just ahead of Regis. The Griffins finished 17-10 and 9-5 in the RMAC to sit in sixth last year. This year, they are currently 12^th place at 3-9 in the RMAC.
• Ava Liviosi has been one of the top liberos in the RMAC this year as she is ranked third in the RMAC in digs per set with 4.56 and sixth in total digs (392). She also leads the team with 30 aces. She had reached double-digit digs in all but three game this year. She's reached a season-high 26 digs twice versus Arkansas Tech in the opener and against UCCS. This past weekend, she had 37 digs with 22 versus Regis and 15 versus Chadron. She also added three aces.
• Elsa Gilmore has been the top hitter for Westminster this year as she is the only attacker with over 200 kills and sits with 211. She also sits fourth on the team with 34 blocks. She is averaging 2.48 kills per set and has a .236 hitting percentage. Gilmore had an insane start to the year, reaching double-digit kills in seven of the first nine games, but since then, she has only reached that mark four times. However, this past weekend, she posted 15 or more kills in both games, which were both season highs at 15 kills versus Regis and 17 versus Chadron. She also had a .517 hitting percentage versus CSC.
• Tila Heikkinen has been the top setter for the Griffins. She has a team-high 331 assists and is averaging 4.87 assists per set. She also has 23 aces. She reached double-digit assists in each of the first 15 games of the season. However, since then, she has only reached it once in her last seven games. Last weekend, she had 25 total assists with 16 versus Chadron.
• Head Coach Lindsey Calvin is in her first year as head coach of the Griffins. She currently has a career 4-20 record with a 3-9 RMAC record. She served as the volunteer assistant coach last season for the Griffins.

 
SERIES HISTORY

• Since joining D2, Westminster just officially took the series lead last year at 7-6 with  a win. BHSU won six of the first nine matchups, but have now lost four straight since 2023.
• BHSU lost last year in four sets as Ellie Thomas had a career-high 33 digs on senior night last season. The Jackets took the first set 25-21 before losing the last three in close fashion.