JACKRABBITS RALLY TO WIN IN FIVE

Thursday, October 28

Brookings, S.D.

7 p.m. CT

South Dakota State University

13-9,5-6Summit League

Oral Roberts

14-6,8-3Summit League

Oral Roberts

South Dakota St.

10/28/2021 11:28:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Photo Gallery

Fans at Frost Arena Thursday night were treated to a five-set thriller between South Dakota State and Oral Roberts. The Jackrabbits staved off four Golden Eagle match points and rallied for the 3-2 win (25-19, 8-25, 21-25, 31-29, 16-14).

The Jackrabbits trailed for the majority of set five, taking their first lead at 10-9. Three straight ORU points gave the Golden Eagles a 12-10 advantage.

ORU's final match point of the contest came with a 14-13 lead, but the Jackrabbits used an ORU attack error sandwiched between Crystal Burk kills to score three unanswered points and take the match.

"Good teams win ugly," said Dan Georgalas, head coach of the Jackrabbit squad. "We certainly didn't play a perfect match, but I'm very happy for our team to overcome some adversity tonight to get the result. We fought and believed in ourselves when things weren't going well and I'm very proud of our group for that, they didn't give up. We took advantage of our 'championship point' moment tonight and we'll take that with us moving forward."

The Golden Eagles' first three match points came in set four. Their first was with a 24-22 lead when Burk notched one of her 18 kills to bring the Jacks back within one. A bad set by the Golden Eagles on the next play tied the set up at 24.

Elyse Winter tallied an ace go put the Jacks ahead by one, 25-24, and then an ORU kill evened the set at 25. The sides traded points until 27-27, when ORU went ahead again with a block to put the Golden Eagles at match point for the third time.

Back-to-back Jackrabbit kills from Chloe Stitt and Ella Thompson pushed the Jacks up again at 29-28. Oral Roberts tied the set at 29 before a kill by Winter and a Stitt ace ended the marathon 31-29 in favor of SDSU.

Set one also went to the Jackrabbits. There were 10 ties in the set and neither led by more than three points until South Dakota State ended the game on a 6-0 run. The Golden Eagles scored two straight points out of their own timeout to tie the set up at 18. The sides traded points before the Jackrabbit run started with a kill by Burk. An ace by Stitt, a pair of ORU attack errors and one more kill apiece from Burk and Winter ended the set for the Jacks.

Burk's 18 kills was a team high and matched Jaxie Wakley and Trinity Freeman's totals for ORU. Stitt was just behind Burk with 16 kills and the duo combined for 26 digs.

Anna Nerad checked in in in set four and had four kills on seven attacks for a .429 hitting percentage. Jasmine Weidemann dished 50 assists, a career high for the freshman. Weidemann also took part in three blocks, matching Sydney Andrews' defensive contribution. The Jackrabbits had 10 service aces, matching their season high, with three coming from Stitt.

NOTES

Weidemann's 50 assists is the fourth-most by a Jackrabbit setter this season
ORU outhit the Jackrabbits .308-.160 and had 21 more kills in the match
Crystal Burk notched her 11th double-double of the season
Chloe Stitt has three double-doubles this season
This is the second time Burk and Stitt have posted a double-double in the same match
Oral Roberts only Summit League losses before Thursday were to Kansas City and Omaha
The Jacks avenged the five-set loss to Oral Roberts from earlier this season
State moves to 13-9 on the year and 5-6 in Summit League contests