SPEARFISH, S.D.- The Black Hills State Yellow Jackets (5-5 (1-1 RMAC)) just came off a fantastic weekend to start RMAC play and after going 1-1, they will be heading down to Colorado, where they will have matchups versus Colorado Christian (5-3 (2-0 RMAC)) in Lakewood, Colo. and CSU Pueblo (5-6 (2-0 RMAC)) in Pueblo, Colo. The Yellow Jackets will look to get a couple more major wins to help their schedule.
 
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO:
Date/Time/Location: Colorado: Friday, September 18 at 6 PM at CCU Events Center in Lakewood, Colo.
CSU Pueblo: Saturday, September 19 at 5 PM at Massari Arena in Pueblo, Colo.
Live Stream: RMAC Network (Pay-Per-View)
Tickets: Tickets can be purchased at the link above.
 
BLACK HILLS STATE STORYLINES:

• Black Hills State is now 5-5 (1-1 RMAC) and has continued to keep a .500 record this early in the season. This is tied for the latest BHSU has been at .500 in the D2 era with the only other time BHSU has been 5-5 being in 2013. The Yellow Jackets were able to pull out a massive upset win versus Fort Lewis in five sets before falling to Western Colorado in three the next day. It was the first time since 2021 that the Yellow Jackets won their season opener.
• 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 four five set matches going 3-1 this season in such matches. BHSU went 2-2 in five setters last year and are 42-41 since joining D2 in matches that go five sets.
• The Yellow Jackets are ranked in the top half of the RMAC in four categories. They are ranked fourth in the conference and 63^rd in the country in hitting percentage (.225), they are ranked sixth in win-loss percentage (.500), and they are ranked seventh in team assists (406), and team kills (443).
• 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.
• Zoie Husman has started all ten games this year and after a fantastic tournament in Sioux Falls, she is leading the team with 108 kills and 13 aces. She is second with 62 digs. She also has 12 blocks. Her best game of the year came versus Fort Lewis last week where she had her third double-double of her career with 21 kills and 13 digs. The 21 kills were a 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 blcosk. 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 weekend, besides the FLC game, she had seven kills and ten digs versus WCU.
• Carsyn Mettler was another top hitter for BHSU this past week. Mettler, who has remained consistent now has a hitting percentage of .300 in six out of ten games this year. She is second on the team in kills with 105, a team-high .284 hitting percentage, and is third on the team with 13 total blocks. She has reached ten kills in five games this year, including each of the last three. She had a .320 hitting percentage against #6 Washburn, and then a .455 hitting percentage versus UMary. She had 13 kills and two blocks versus Upper Iowa two weekends ago, but she had 28 kills in RMAC Weekend one with 15 versus Fort Lewis and 13 versus WCU. She had a .440 hitting percentage versus WCU.
• Izzy Saiki has been one of the trio of BHSU hitters this year. The senior from Thronton, Colo. is in the midst of a career year. She is third on the team with 101 kills with a 2.86 kills per set mark and a .209 hitting percentage. She is also tied for the lead on the team in aces with 13. She also has 69 digs and six total blocks. She had a career-high 20 kills versus Western New Mexico and had 37 kills this past weekend with six aces and 23 digs. She had her second double-double of the season with 12 kills and 11 digs versus Upper Iowa. Saiki had her fifth double-digit kill game of the season with ten versus FLC with a 13-dig double-double to go with it.
• Elena Atkinson and Emma Kruger have had almost identical seasons. After combining for 135 assists last weekend, they combined for 80 this weekend with each of them getting 40 assists. Atkinson sits atop with 184 assists and has averaged 4.84 assists per set this season, while Kruger has 178 and has averaged 4.63. The former had a .339 set percentage to the latter's .408. Atkinson's best game came against Western New Mexico, where she had 33 assists, which the second most in her entire career. She had a .407 set percentage, which was the second-best on the weekend, only behind MSUB, where she had a .514 set percentage. Kruger's best game came against Fort Lewis, where she had 31 assists and 7 digs with an insane .508 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 11^th in the RMAC in total assists.
• 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 has started all ten games at the libero position. She is currently leading the team with 143 digs, reaching the 100-dig mark against Upper Iowa. She is averaging 3.86 digs per set and has seven aces as well. Thompson had her career-high of 29 digs this past weekend versus Fort Lewis, which past her previous career-high set in the game before versus Upper Iowa of 21. She averaged 5.8 digs per set.
• Izabel Abril has been one of the other players to start all ten games this year. Abril is sitting at 61 kills and is leading the team with 21.0 total blocks. She just 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.
• Peyton McLeod has continued her solid career with ten starts in ten games this year. She is second on the team lead in blocks with 19 and has 44 kills. McLeod had a career-high nine kills versus UMary in the first tournament, and then matched it again versus Upper Iowa. She had four kills and three total blocks versus FLC this past weekend.
• Head coach Grayson DuBose enters his second season with the Yellow Jackets and has a BHSU record of 11-25 (3-13 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 all 14 years and has a 200-258 career record with two WAC Coach of the Year awards and one NCAA Division 1 Tournament appearance. DuBose was able to finally get his 200^th career win against Fort Lewis in the five-set thriller.

 
COLORADO CHRISTIAN STORYLINES

• Colorado Christian is currently 5-3 (2-0 RMAC) after taking both of their opening games of the RMAC schedule. They only played a six-team non-conference schedule, but that included three games versus teams who are receiving votes or are ranked in the AVCA Coaches Poll. They went 1-2 in those matchups getting a win over Northern State, but falling to Dallas Baptist and #11 Point Loma.
• During their opening RMAC weekend, they played nine sets taking down Chadron in five sets, before beating Regis in four. This puts them at 2-0 in the RMAC and they are one of only five teams to go 2-0 in the opening weekend.
• This will be CCU's first home games of the year. Last year, they went 6-3 in CCU Events Center including a 3-0 sweep over #2 Angelo State last season.
• The Cougars are ranked top half of the RMAC in three categories. They are ranked fourth in opponent hitting percentage (.174), fourth in match win/loss percentage (.625), and seventh in assists per set (11.06).
• The Cougars were placed sixth in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 125 points and one third place vote behind CSU Pueblo, and just ahead of Fort Lewis. They finished in a tie for seventh last year with a 12-14 (7-7 RMAC) record and are currently tied for first in the RMAC with a 2-0 record.
• Krista Traynor is one of the top players for CCU. The setter from Seattle was just named RMAC Setter of the Week this past weekend as she had 88 assists over two games including a career-high 59 assists versus Chadron State. She has reached 20 assists in six of the eight games this year and has reached ten digs in four out of eight. She also is an attacker who has double-digit kills in four games this year. She has 206 total assists, seventh in the RMAC and 6.06 assists per set, sixth in the RMAC, while having a team-high 16 aces, which is fourth in the RMAC. .47 aces per set, second in the RMAC, 67 kills, and a team-high 85 digs. She also is tied for second on the team in blocks with 17.0 total blocks. She is the only player in the country to have three triple-doubles (ten kills, assists, and digs) this year. She did it versus Cal State Dominican Hills (11,20,11), Dallas Baptist (10, 19, 15), and Regis (10, 29, 15).
• Allie Allen is the top libero for CCU as Allen sits 77 digs for the year. Allen is coming off a great weekend where she earned RMAC Defensive Player of the Week after putting up 57 digs over two games. The freshman had a career-high 35 digs versus Chadron and then added 22 versus Regis.
• Colorado Christian's top hitter has been Sienna Thatcher. Thatcher is the team leader in kills with 92 and also in points with 106. She is averaging 2.88 kills per set and 3.31 digs per set. She also has seven aces, 73 digs, and 13 total blocks. Thatcher had four double-digit kill games to begin the season and has ten or more in six of eight. She had a great weekend this past week with 36 kills including 23 versus Chadron. She also had two double doubles with 13 digs versus Chadron and 13 kills and 16 digs versus Regis.
• Head coach Bobby Blanken is in his tenth season with CCU. He has produced a 120-127 record with the Courgars including an 18-11 season in his first year, since then he has hovered around .500 every year until 2024, where he went 19-11. Prior to joining CCU, he was also a head coach at Master's in California. There, he went 77-54 for a career record of 197-181 over four seasons.

 
SERIES HISTORY

• BHSU has a 3-14 record versus the Cougars since joining the RMAC. They won two out of three from 2019-2021 before falling in the last four. They have never won a game in Lakewood.
• Last year in Spearfish, the Yellow Jackets fell 3-0 to the Cougars losing the last set in a tight 26-24 battle.

 
CSU PUEBLO STORYLINES

• CSU Pueblo is currently 5-6 (2-0 RMAC) and is coming off a great weekend where they swept Regis and then beat Chadron in five sets. Pueblo started off their season going 1-3 at the Angelo State Invitational with a win over East Central. They then bounced back with a win over #25 West Texas A&M before going 1-3 in the Royce Cappis Invitational, their home tournament, with a win over Florida Tech.
• CSUP is 1-3 at home this year with a win over Florida Tech and losses to (RV) Minnesota Duluth, Adelphi, and Fort Lewis. Last year they went 10-0 at home. They also made the NCAA Tournament last year falling in the first round to #20 West Texas A&M.
• The ThunderWolves are ranked top four in the RMAC in six categories and are ranked top 15 in the country in two of those. They are ranked first in the RMAC and fifth in the country in total blocks (108.5), they are ranked second in the RMAC and 13^th in the country in blocks per set (2.41), second in the RMAC in total attacks (1,468), third in the RMAC in digs (609), fourth in assists (443), and fourth in kills (490).
• The ThunderWolves were projected to finish fifth in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 155 points, one second place vote, and four third place votes. They were picked just ahead of CCU and just behind the tie of Mines and MSU Denver. They finished third in the RMAC last year with a 11-3 conference record and a 20-9 overall record.
• Andi Northdurft is one of the top defenders in the country. Northdurft is tenth in the country in total blocks with 50 and is 32^nd in blocks per set (1.11). Northdurft has ten solo blocks and 40 assist blocks, while also having 56 kills. In 11 games, the senior middle blocker has reached five total blocks in six games. She had 11 blocks versus East Central in the season opener. She also had 11 kills versus Chadron with six blocks this past weekend.
• Chinaru Pao has been one of the top liberos in the RMAC. She currently sits with 185 digs, which is second in the RMAC and has 4.11 digs per set, which is seventh. She leads the team in aces with 10 as well. She's had ten digs in nine of 11 and has reached 20 four times. This past weekend, she had a season-high 27 digs verssu Chadron State with two aces.
• The top hitter for CSU Pueblo is Lilly Zwart, who is a senior from New Zealand. She currently sits at 128 kills, which is fifth in the RMAC. She is averaging 2.84 kills per set and a .250 hitting percentage. Zwart also has 35.0 total blocks this season. She has reached double-digit kills in seven of the 11 games including a season high 20 versus MSU Moorhead. She had a season-high six blocks versus Regis this past weekend and then had four versus Chadron State, while having a combined 22 kills.
• Head coach Jordan Bruere is in her second season as head coach of the ThunderWolves. She has a CSUP record of 25-15. Prior to being named head coach at CSUP, she was the head coach at Western Colorado, where she went 17-37 over two seasons making her career-record 42-52.

 
SERIES HISTORY

• Since joining the RMAC, the Yellow Jackets are 4-12 versus CSU Pueblo. The ThunderWovles have won eight straight games versus BHSU, with three of the Yellow Jacket's wins coming in a row from 2017-2019.
• The Green and Gold fell 0-3 to CSUP last time they faced each other in Spearfish. The first set was very close with CSU Pueblo taking it 25-22 before taking the next two sets.