Black Hills State University Athletics

SIOUX FALLS, S.D.- The Yellow Jackets are now back at .500 after winning a five-set thriller against the Upper Iowa Peacocks in the Stewart Center in Sioux Falls Saturday afternoon. After dropping the first set, BHSU were able to pull out the next two sets before losing the fourth and winning a close fifth set to take the win. Keira Thompson had a career-high in digs with 21.
 
QUICK DETAILS
Score: Black Hills State 3, Upper Iowa 2
Team Records: Black Hills State (4-4), Sioux Falls (3-4)
Attendance: 183
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Black Hills State was able to get a great start to the first set when they took a four of the first six points, this turned into an 12-7 run that gave BHSU a nice lead early. Two aces by Thompson and three kills by Izabel Abril helped that run. That lead quickly evaporated when the Peacocks won seven straight points and turned that into a 18-6 run that allowed UIU to win the first set 25-18.
• After Upper Iowa took the opening point of the second set, BHSU had a little run where they won nine in a row that included two aces by Izzy Saiki and a kill and a block from Zoie Husman. UIU went on a 7-3 run to close the gap to 12-8. Each team went on a 4-1 run to make it 17-13. The Green and Gold were able to take eight of the last ten points of the set to win it 25-15 with five different Jackets getting kills in that run.
• The third set started very similar to the second as Upper Iowa won the first point and then BHSU took four in a row. However, a 6-1 run by the Peacocks made it 7-5. After both teams traded points, BHSU eventually tied it up at 11 on a kill by Saiki. Upper Iowa won six of the next nine to take a 17-14 lead. However, the Yellow Jackets did what the Peacocks did to them in the first set with an 11-2 run to end the set and win it 25-19. This run included four kills by Saiki and two by Abril.
• The fourth set was a set of a lot of runs. BHSU took the first four points, before UIU went on a 9-3 run to make it 9-7. The Green and Gold took four out of five, before the Peacocks took seven out of eight to make it 17-12. BHSU then took five out of seven to cut the lead to two at 19-17. Each team won back-to-back points to make it 21-19, but two blocks and a kill gave UIU a 4-0 run to win the set 25-19.
• BHSU dominated the beginning of the fifth set with a 7-4 run with four kills from three different players and two blocks. Upper Iowa won four in a row to take the lead back at 8-7, but BHSU would answer back with a 6-3 run to get them two points away from a win at 13-11. UIU was unable to close the gap as each team won two of the last four points for a 15-13 Yellow Jacket win. Carsyn Mettler had four kills in the last five points to help BHSU get the win.

 
BLACK HILLS STATE STATISTICAL LEADERS
Elena Atkinson: 25 assists
Emma Kruger: 21 assists
Keira Thompson: 21 digs
Zoie Husman: 13 kills, 2 aces, 3 blocks
Carsyn Mettler: 13 kills, 2 blocks
Izzy Saiki: 12 kills, 3 aces, 1 block, 11 digs
 
UP NEXT
BHSU heads home next weekend as they begin RMAC play on Friday (6 PM) and Saturday (5:30 PM) against Fort Lewis and Western Colorado.
 
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