The Summit League battles the past two seasons between South Dakota and Denver have been something else. Thursday night it happened again as South Dakota fell behind 0-2 and then rallied for a 17-25, 25-27, 25-19, 27-25, 15-10 victory.
“I feel like I’m a little speechless after that match,” South Dakota coach Leanne Williamson said. “That was an incredible journey.”
It’s the third consecutive five-set match between the two, including last spring’s Summit tournament final when South Dakota also pulled off the reverse sweep to take the conference’s NCAA bid.
In matches Thursday involving ranked teams, No. 2 Texas swept Oklahoma, No. 5 BYU swept Pepperdine, No. 8 Minnesota swept Iowa, No. 13 Washington beat No. 20 Stanford in four, No. 19 San Diego swept Loyola Marymount, and No. 21 Washington State swept Cal.
There’s a busy Friday on tap in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball. For a look at all the key matches, go to our story here.
SUMMIT LEAGUE — Consider the recent history between South Dakota and Denver. Last spring, South Dakota won in four, but the match the next night was canceled. So the next time they met was in the tournament final when South Dakota came away with an absolutely gripping 19-25, 26-28. 27-25, 26-24, 19-17 victory.
They played at Denver this past October 16 and Denver won 12-25, 20-25, 25-13, 25-17, 15-10.
So Thursday night should not have been a surprise as South Dakota hit .369 and improved to 16-8 overall, 13-2 in the conference, while Denver dropped to 21-4, 12-3.
Sami Slaughter led South Dakota with 19 kills as she hit .390 and had three blocks and three digs. Elizabeth Juhnke had 17 kills, hit .438, and had three assists, an ace, two blocks, and 13 digs. Madison Jurgens had five kills, 46 assists, an ace, a block, and 11 digs. Lolo Weideman had 13 digs, four assists, and four aces.
Denver’s Lydia Bartalo had 18 kills, hit .311, and had an assist, an ace, two blocks, and 10 digs. Hailey Green had 14 kills, three digs, and five blocks, one solo. Ari Winters and Tina Boe had 13 kills each …
Not to be lost in all that is that Omaha (17-8, 14-1) still leads the conference after sweeping at South Dakota State (16-10, 8-7). And better still, Omaha visits South Dakota on Sunday.
The Mavericks hit .313 against SDSU. Sadie Limback had 13 kills with no errors in 25 attacks to hit .520 and she had an assist, an ace, and eight digs. Shayla McCormick had 12 kills, an assist, an ace, three blocks, and nine digs … Kansas City swept St. Thomas and Oral Roberts did the same to Western Illinois.
BIG 12 — Texas (19-1, 10-1) hit .442 in its 25-22, 25-14, 25-13 victory over visiting Oklahoma (10-14, 4-9). Logan Eggleston led with 18 kills and hit .586 after having one error in 29 attacks. She had two aces, a block, and five digs. Molly Phillips had eight kills in 12 errorless attacks, and Brionne Butler had seven kills and five blocks, one solo. Oklahoma hit .122 …
Iowa State (16-8, 8-5) beat visiting Kansas State (14-8, 5-6) 25-21, 23-25, 25-20, 25-17. Eleanor Holthaus had 17 kills, hit .364, and had two assists, a block, and three digs. Jaden Newsome had eight kills, hit .333, and had 44 assists, an ace, eight digs, and four blocks, one solo. K-State’s Aliyah Carter had 11 kills.
PAC-12 — Washington (19-4,12-3) won both matches in the same season against Stanford (13-10 8-7) for the first time since 2005 when the visiting Huskies came away a 25-22, 25-20, 23-25, 25-19 victory. Samantha Drechsel led with 20 kills as she hit .333 and had two assists and 15 digs. Claire Hoffman had 17 kills, hit .382, and had two blocks and 11 digs. Ella May Powell had four kills, 55 assists, an ace, six blocks, and eight digs.
Stanford’s Caitie Baird had a career-high 26 kills with one error in 46 attacks to hit .543 and added an assist, a block, and six digs. Kendall Kipp had 16 kills, an ace, three blocks and eight digs. Kami Miner had 49 assists, 12 digs, and five blocks, two solo …
Washington State (17-8, 11-4) had six players with five or more kills and won 25-19, 25-3, 25-14 at Cal (7-19, 0-15). Argentina Ung led the Cougars with nine kills as she hit .333 and had an assist, a block, and five digs. Cal’s Lydia Grote had 15 kills, hit .344, and had five digs.
BIG SKY — After Thursday, Weber State holds a half-game lead over idle Northern Colorado, and Portland State fell a game back.
Weber State (17-8, 12-3) swept visiting Northern Arizona (11-13, 9-6) despite having nine fewer kills. Rylin Adams led with 10 and Emma Mangum had eight. NAU got 12 kills apiece from Taylor Jacobsen and Lyla Hollis … Portland State (17-9, 11-4) fell out of the lead when it lost in five to visiting Montana State (14-12, 10-5), which now finds itself two games off the pace. Montana State’s Kira Thomsen had 14 kills, an assist, 16 digs, and three blocks. Portland State’s Makayla Lewis had 20 kills with one error in 47 attacks, an assist, an ace, 17 digs, and a block … Idaho State beat Southern Utah in four … Sacramento State swept Montana.
AROUND THE NATION — In the only Big Ten match Thursday, No. 8 Minnesota (17-6, 12-3) swept Iowa (4-21, 2-13) for its sixth victory in a row. Jenna Wenaas had 13 kills with one error in 26 attacks in the 25-22, 25-14, 25-17 victory. Stephanie Samedy had 12 kills with one error in 22 attacks, three blocks, and six digs …
In the only SEC match, Ole Miss (18-6, 6-7) beat visiting LSU (10-13, 6-8) 25-19, 17-25, 26-24, 25-19 as Lauren Thompson had a career-high 19 kills. Thompson hit .341 and had two blocks and five digs. Sasha Ratliff had 10 kills, hit .471, and had three digs and six blocks. LSU’s Taylor Bannister had 16 kills, hit .406, and had an ace, four digs, and two blocks, one solo. Ella Larkin had four kills in seven errorless tries, 44 assists, an ace, and 18 digs …
BYU (24-1, 14-0) hit .354 and overpowered visiting West Coast Conference opponent Pepperdine (18-5, 10-4) 25-15, 25-17, 25-8 for its 17th win in a row and sixth consecutive sweep. Taylen Ballard-Nixon had 11 kills, an assist, an ace, three digs, and a block. Kenzie Koerber had 10 kills and hit .333 and had an assist, two aces, nine digs, and four blocks. Rachel Ahrens had 18 kills for Pepperdine, which hit .008 … San Diego (19-4, 13-1) kept pace with a 25-19, 25-21, 25-11 sweep of Loyola Marymount (15-9, 6-8) as Katie Lukes had 14 kills, hit .308, and had an ace, a block, and five digs. Grace Frohling had 11 kills with one error in 18 attacks, two assists, three aces, six blocks, and eight digs …
American Athletic-leader UCF swept visiting Memphis. McKenna Melville had 15 kills, an assist, 14 digs, and a block, and Anne-Marie Watson had 14 kills, hit .545, and had a dig and two blocks …
Horizon-leader Milwaukee hit .406 and swept at Robert Morris as Carmen Heilemann had 21 kills in the three-set match. She had two errors in 29 attacks, an ace, five digs, and a block. Ari Miller had 12 kills in 20 errorless swings and two blocks … Also in the Horizon, UIC hit .421 as it won in four at Youngstown State. Paola Santiago led with 19 kills and hit .441 to go with two assists and 10 digs. The line of the match belonged to Youngstown State’s Paula Gursching, who had 24 kills, hit .429, and had an assist, two aces, and four digs …
In the Mountain West, San Jose State (17-8, 11-4) beat visiting Utah State (19-8, 11-4) in four, and now the two are tied for second, a game back of idle Colorado State (16-8, 12-3). Letzia Cammillucci led SJSU with 19 kills, an assist, and eight digs. Mia Schafer had a kill, 48 assists, two aces, two blocks, and 19 digs. Sarah Smevog had 21 digs, five assists, and four of her team’s 14 aces. Utah State’s Kristy Frank had 16 kills, an ace, three blocks, and seven digs …
SWAC-leader Jackson State won in four at Mississippi Valley behind 18 kills by Alexis Williams, who hit .302 and had an assist, an ace, eight digs, and four blocks …
Southland-leader Texas A&M-Corpus Christi hit .357 as it swept UIW and Houston Baptist stayed a game back with a four-set win at McNeese. TAMUCC’s Faith Panhans had 10 kills with one error in 15 attacks, 34 assists, an ace, and five digs …
In the WAC, idle NM State (18-8, 9-4) and Chicago State (17-8, 9-4) are tied for the West Division lead after Chicago State swept at Grand Canyon (17-6, 9-5), knocking the Lopes out of a tie for the lead. Yanliz Feliz led with 21 kills, hit .395, and had two blocks and eight digs. Andrea Calderon had 18 digs, four assists, and an ace … GCU’s McKenzie Wise had 12 kills, hit .345, and had two assists, a solo block, and seven digs.
