TULSA, Okla. – The South Dakota State volleyball team opened up Summit League action with a reverse sweep over Oral Roberts Thursday night at the Mabee Center. The Jacks improve to 12-0 on the season, continuing the program’s best start since 2000.
Set scores against the Golden Eagles went 23-25, 22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 15-9. Thursday’s victory is SDSU’s first comeback from two sets down since doing so at Western Illinois in 2016.
The Jacks hit .588 in the final set and .262 for the match. They were led by a 17-kill, .680 clip performance from Sydni Schetnan. The redshirt junior finished one kill shy of her career high and took part in three total blocks.
Sylvie Zgonc also had 17 blocks and notched a team-high 13 digs. She has eight double-doubles through 12 matches this season.
Madison Burr posted a .500 hit percentage with 11 kills and only two errors on 18 swings. She recorded four block assists and three service aces, including two in the final set. Katie Van Egdom put down a season-high eight kills.
Rylee Martin dished 45 assists to go with 11 digs, three aces and a kill. Rachel Wieber and Alia Schlimgen had two aces apiece.
The Jackrabbits edged the Eagles 60-56 in kills, 12-9 in aces and 7-3 in blocks.
Trinity Freeman and Ansley Ricard had 22 and 20 kills, respectively, for ORU.
Set one: The Jackrabbits opened the match with a 5-1 lead behind two kills from Zgonc. The Eagles bounced back to tie to set a few times before taking their first lead at 9-8. Martin tallied an ace to cap a three-point stretch to take the lead back at 13-11. The Jacks led 15-13 at the media timeout, then the sides traded 3-0 runs and the Jacks led 18-16. From there, the sides traded points until a 3-0 run by the Eagles pushed them ahead, 22-21. The Eagles went on to win 25-23.
Set two: The Jacks scored the first two points of set two, then ORU outscored SDSU 7-2 to lead 7-4. The Eagles continued to pull away and went up 18-12 on back-to-back services aces. SDSU scored four straight in a run that included a block and a kill from Annalee Ventling-Brown, pulling the road team back within two at 18-16. A 6-1 Jackrabbit stretch tied the set at 22 before ORU scored the final three to go up 2-0 in the match.
Set three: Schlimgen had two aces for the Jacks to lead 6-3 in set three. ORU came back to lead 9-7 with a 5-0 run. Aces from Burr and Martin helped the Jacks outscore ORU 5-2 and pull ahead 15-13. Schetnan posted consecutive kills and Zgonc put down an ace as the Jacks scored six straight and led 21-15. Zgonc extended the match into set four with a kill to win it.
Set four: Tied at seven in the fourth, SDSU got point from five different players during a run that put them up 15-10. The Jacks scored five straight with two kills from Burr to stretch their lead to 22-13. Schetnan forced the tiebreak set with a kill for the 25-16 win.
Set five: SDSU opened the final set with the first three points off a pair of aces from Burr. Kills from Van Egdom just before and immediately following the side change gave the Jackrabbits a 9-6 lead. Burr, Zgonc, Wieber and Martin were all responsible for points during a 4-0 run to go up 13-7. Zgonc had the Jacks’ final two kills to complete the reverse sweep, 15-9.
NOTES
South Dakota State started 14-0 in 2000. The Jackrabbits current 12-0 mark is the best start in the Division I era and matches the program’s longest overall win streak since 2004.
UP NEXT
SDSU continues its road trip to Denver for a match at 2 p.m. CT Saturday afternoon.