SOUTH DAKOTA STATE LOOKS TO BOUNCE BACK AT ORAL ROBERTS

Saturday, October 2

Tulsa, OK

1 p.m. CT

South Dakota State University

Oral Roberts

10/1/2021 11:25:00 AM | Women's Volleyball

MATCH 15: South Dakota State (9-5, 1-2) at Oral Roberts (11-4, 3-0)

When	Saturay, Oct. 2 at 1 p.m.
Where	Tulsa, Okla.
TV	ORUAthletics.com/Watch
Live Stats	ORUAthletics.com
Week 5 Game Notes	South Dakota State \| Oral Roberts \| Summit League
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook

South Dakota State women's volleyball will take on Oral Roberts Saturday afternoon at Cooper Aerobics Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

SERIES HISTORY
The Golden Eagles lead the all-time series 17-7 and are 7-3 in the previous 10 meetings. The teams met to end the 2020 regular season and split the matches, both winning in 3-0 sweeps.

In the last meeting the Jacks hit .191 while the Golden Eagles finished with a .286 hitting percentage. ORU had the advantage in kills (50-34), assists (44-30) and digs (54-46). State outblocked Oral Roberts 9-7.

Crystal Burk narrowly missed a double-double with 14 kills and eight digs. Hailee Blau and Akeela Jefferson combined for 11 kills while Blau added five blocks and Jefferson recorded six digs. Anna Nerad finished with four kills while Tatum Pickar had 10 digs. Carly Wedel finished with 13 assists.

Kaia Dunford had 12 kills for ORU and Jaxie Wakley added 10. Four players registered hitting percentages above .300 in the contest, led by Waxley's .643. Setter Sylvia Lawson had six kills and a .545 attack rate to go with 38 assists.

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN EAGLES
Oral Roberts is one of three Summit teams unbeaten in League play. The Golden Eagles swept North Dakota and North Dakota State last week and won in four over South Dakota Thursday.

Trinity Freeman and Kaia Dunford lead the Golden Eagles with 119 and 108 kills on the season, respectively. Freeman tallied 14 kills against the Coyotes. Sakira LaCour's .319 attack percentage with 107 kills is a team high. LaCour leads ORU and the Summit at 1.27 blocks per set.

Bryanna Soares has 386 assists this year and averages 9.19 helpers per set. She tallied a double-double against USD with 47 assists and 14 digs and added seven kills. Soares and Jeslyn Spencer have 16 aces apiece. Sarah Thiessen has notched 202 digs and averages 4.59 per set.

THE JACKRABBITS
Jackrabbit volleyball is 9-5 on the season and 1-2 in Summit action. The Jacks most recently fell 3-0 to Kansas City.

The Jacks' offense is powered by Crystal Burk's 198 total kills and 3.88 kills per set average, which also leads the League. Chloe Stitt also ranks in the Summit's top-10 hitters, averaging 2.98 kills per set for eighth. Ella Thompson's hitting efficiency of .294 is the best of the Jacks.

Thompson is ranked on the League's block list. The freshman averages 1.06 blocks per set (54 total), ranking sixth. Wedel is third on the Summit assists chart with 9.88 helpers per set. Burk and Tatum Pickar lead the Jackrabbit back row. Burk has a team-high 122 total digs this season and Pickar is just behind with 118. Pickar's 4.21 digs per set is the highest average among the SDSU squad and is fifth in the League.

LAST TIME OUT
South Dakota State volleyball dropped a 3-0 road match to the Roos of Kansas City Thursday night.

A 9-0 run by Kansas City in the opening game spelled disaster for the Jacks, who committed nine attack errors and registered a negative hitting percentage in set one. SDSU looked much stronger in sets two and three. The score stayed tight through the majority of both games but Kansas City managed to pull away late.

Crystal Burk led all players with 13 kills. Ella Thompson and Akeela Jefferson had six kills each and Thompson attacked at a .308 clip.

Jasmine Weidemann checked in during the second set for the Jackrabbits and dished out 13 assists, a career best for the freshman. Carly Wedel had 16 helpers. Defensively, Tatum Pickar tallied 16 digs and Burk added 10. Sydney Andrews had three blocks.

UP NEXT
The Jackrabbits will return to Brookings to host Western Illinois Thursday at Frost Arena.