BROOKINGS, S.D. (SDSU) – South Dakota State volleyball picked up its first home win of the season Thursday with a a 3-0 sweep over St. Thomas at Frost Arena.

The Jackrabbits move to 5-16 on the season, 3-6 in Summit League play and 1-3 at home.

SDSU notched 44 kills as a team, their second-most in a three-set match this year, at a .277 clip. The team was paced by a 12-kill night from Katie Van Egdom, followed by 10 kills from Sylvie Zgonc and seven from Masa Scheierman.  Elyse Winter chipped in six kills and registered an errorless .500 hitting percentage.

Raegen Reilly and Rylee Martin dished 19 and 15 assists, respectively. Reilly recorded 12 digs from the back row while Martin recorded two kills and a block at the net.

Stella Winterfeld led the defense with 18 digs in the match to go with four assists and an ace. Van Egdom contributed 13 digs, one block and one ace. Winter and Zgonc took part in four blocks apiece.

Ellie Gustafson and Tezra Rudzitis notched eight kills apiece to lead the Tommies. Morgan Kealy had 21 assists and Ella Voegele had 22 digs.

The Jacks finished with a .277-.130 advantage in hitting percentage and also bested the Tommies in kills (44-35), aces (4-2) and blocks (7-5).

Set one: The teams went back-and-forth to open the set until a 3-0 stretch pushed the Jacks ahead, 7-5. Leading 9-7, SDSU put together a six-point run that included a kill and an ace from Van Egdom. UST scored seven of the next nine to pull within one at 17-16. Following a Jackrabbit timeout the home team ended the set on an 8-1 run with multiple kills by Scheierman and Van Egdom.

Set two: Zgonc put down two kills to help the Jackrabbits to a 5-2 lead. UST came back to tie the set at five, then the Jacks took the lead for good with a 3-0 run. Another kill by Zgonc and an ace from Winter made it 14-11 for SDSU. Van Egdom, Winter and Scheierman all put down kills during a 4-1 run that pushed the Jackrabbit lead to 21-15. Akeela Jefferson ended the set with her first kill of the night.

Set three: Behind five kills from five different players, SDSU took a 6-1 lead in the final set. After trading points, a three-point run stretched the Jacks’ lead to 12-6. The Tommies came back within three to force an SDSU timeout at 14-11. Zgonc put down two kills out of the timeout that helped the Jackrabbits go up 17-12. UST came back within three again at 23-20, then Scheierman and Van Egdom notched kills for the 25-21 victory.

NOTES
SDSU maintains an unblemished record against the Tommies at 6-0.

UP NEXT
South Dakota State hosts Kansas City at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon.