TULSA, Okla. - The South Dakota State volleyball team played its final road match of the season on Saturday at Oral Roberts, and came away with a 3-1 win, snapping a season-long seven match losing streak in the process.
"Our focus and attention to detail was good tonight," head coach Phil McDaniel said. "The match was not pretty but we were able to gut one out."
The Jackrabbits, who won by the set scores of 25-21, 27-25, 16-25 and 25-23, improve to 13-17 overall and 5-11 in The Summit League. Oral Roberts falls to 19-8 overall and 12-5 in league play.
Kaitlin Klingemann led the Jacks with 16 kills and with six block assists. Kelly Herrmann added 11 kills and 15 digs for her sixth double-double of the season. Ellyce Youngren finished with 10 kills, adding four block assists and two solo blocks in the win.
Shay Birath led the SDSU defense with 29 digs, while Emily Palmer finished with a career-high 27 digs.
Elizabeth McVicker led the Golden Eagles with 12 kills, Joana Gruber added 11, while Olivia Ophus and Jessica Pancratz both finished with 10. Bruna Silva led the ORU defense with 35 digs.
The Jackrabbits jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the match, dropped the third set and then fell into an early 10-5 hole in the fourth set. SDSU battled back to tie the set at 12-all before finally taking a lead at 15-14.
ORU came right back and took a 16-14 lead, and held on to that lead until SDSU tied the match at 23-23 on a Palmer service ace.
A Klingemann kill put the Jacks up 24-13 and an ORU attack error ended the match with a 25-23 score in the fourth set.
The Jackrabbits return home for their final three matches of the season, starting with a match against No. 12 Northern Iowa on Monday at 6 p.m., followed by matches against UMKC on Friday and South Dakota on Saturday.
