KANSAS CITY VISITS FROST ARENA SATURDAY

Saturday, October 30

Brookings, S.D.

1 p.m. CT

South Dakota State University

Kansas City

10/29/2021 2:23:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

MATCH 22: South Dakota State (13-9, 5-6) vs. Kansas City (17-7, 8-4)

When	Saturday, Oct. 30 at 1 p.m. CT
Where	Brookings, S.D. \| Frost Arena
TV	GoJacks.com/Watch
Live Stats	GoJacksLive.com
Match Notes	South Dakota State \| Summit League
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook

South Dakota State volleyball is riding the high of a five-set victory and hopes to carry that momentum into Saturday's match against Kansas City at Frost Arena.

SERIES HISTORY
SDSU and Kansas City have met 22 times with the Roos holding a 12-10 lead in the all-time series. KC won 3-0 when the teams last met back on September 30.

Crystal Burk led all players in 13 kills in that contest while Ella Thompson and Akeela Jefferson added six each. Carly Wedel and Jasmine Weidemann combined for 29 assists. Tatum Pickar tallied 16 digs and Burk had 10.

Melanie Brecka and Bree Thompson had double-digit kills for the Roos with 11 and 10, respectively. Alli Schomers had 28 assists and Maddie Ren managed 17 digs.

THE ROOS
Kansas City is 17-7 this season with an 8-4 Summit League record. The Roos' Summit losses have come at the hands of Omaha, South Dakota (twice) and Denver. They have won five of their last seven matches.

KC's offense is led by Melanie Brecka and De' Janae Arnold. Brecka is third in the Summit League with 3.58 kills per set and Arnold's. .400 hitting percentage also ranks third. Brecka's 304 total kills on the season leads all Summit League players.

Alli Schomers' 10.88 assists per set paces the Summit League. She has 925 total assists this season alone. Maddie Renn leads the Summit's dig chart. Her 384 total digs and 4.52 digs per set are the highest among the conference. Arnold averages .89 blocks per set to lead her team. Kennedy Schritenthal has 32 service aces on the year.

As a team, the Roos rank second among conference opponents in digs per set and fourth in assists and opponent hitting percentage.

THE JACKRABBITS
Jackrabbit volleyball is 13-9 on the year and 5-6 in Summit League competition. SDSU most recently bested Oral Roberts in a five-set thriller, ending a three-match skid.

Crystal Burk's 3.77 kills per set paces the Jackrabbit squad and ranks second in the Summit League. Chloe Stitt chips in 2.93 kills per set, ranking ninth. Sydney Andrews attacks at a .299 rate, which is seventh in the League.

Carly Wedel averages 9.74 assists per set for the Jackrabbits. That number ranks fifth among the Summit. Jasmine Weidemann has handled the setting for SDSU lately and gives out 9.12 helpers on average.

SDSU's defense is paced by Tatum Pickar's 3.96 digs per set, which is sixth on the League list. Burk adds 2.42 digs per set and Faith Saewert averages 2.22 digs. Ella Thompson is the Jackrabbits' top blocker. She has 1.00 rejection per set on average.

LAST TIME OUT
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) over Oral Roberts Thursday night at Frost Arena.

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.

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 had 18 kills, a team high. 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.

MILESTONE WATCH
A pair of Jackrabbits are on track to reach significant career milestones in the near future. Carly Wedel sits at 1,483 career assists and will likely reach 1,500 the next time she plays. Crystal Burk has 918 career kills and could reach the 1,000-kill mark yet this season.

UP NEXT
The Jackrabbits will travel to St. Thomas and Western Illinois next weekend.