Volleyball climbs to seven straight wins

After defeating Western Illinois University and University of Nebraska-Omaha this past weekend, the University of South Dakota women’s volleyball team remains undefeated in conference play.

The Coyotes faced the University of Nebraska-Omaha Sunday night and came out winning 3-0. The first two sets, the team came out slow winning close matches in each.  Senior Tori Kroll says they needed to pick up the pace.

“We let up a little bit and were just a little too satisfied with what we did and how we saw they were in standings, conference-wise,” Kroll said.

The second set was a nail biter, but the Coyotes won 28-26.  Errors were a big factor in the second set for the team. The team needed to turn it around in the third set of the match. Head coach Matt Houk said the team showed a great deal of maturity to come out and turn it around in the third set of the game.

“We talked a lot about getting after it with our serve after set two and picking up our blocking. We came out and helped serve nine points right away with two servers. That was really good to see,” Houk said.

The Coyotes’ serving has a big impact on their games, Houk said, and helped turn the game around Sunday. Sophomore Kaitlyn Hastings and junior Kendall Kritenbrink each had a service ace. Kritenbrink finished the game with 20 kills, sophomore Kelsey Biltoft added eight kills and first-year Audrey Reeg added 7 kills for the Coyotes. Kritenbrink said the team is working on its aggressiveness and serving.

“We work on serving every day in practice, and that’s taking teams out of their rhythm and that’s one thing that is working really well for us,” Kritenbrink said.

The team will head to Indiana this weekend, where it will start the second half of conference play.  They will face Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis Friday and Indiana University-Purdue Fort Wayne Saturday.

The team will keep utilizing the 1-0 mentality the second half of conference play.  Houk says IUPUI will be a tough first game in the next week for the Coyotes.

“IUPUI is playing some good volleyball right now. They battled us tough in five at home. We’re going to be prepared for a big battle Friday night,” Houk said.

IPFW is also going to be a tough game for the team. Houk says the environment is always tough there.

“IPFW is always a tough place to play. Their environment is great, and they always have a good crowd. It’s one of our more difficult travel weekends,” Houk said.

The team is ready for a full weekend of travel to kick off the second half of conference play, Kroll said.

“We need to realize we have a target on our back now since we’re 7-0 and keep pushing and keep working hard and keeping aggressive and hitting high,” Kroll said.