The Coyote volleyball team won all three matches at the UMKC Classic in Kansas City Missouri on Sept. 6 and 7.
The Coyotes (6-1) swept Tulsa and Kansas City in straight sets Friday. Freshman Elizabeth Juhnke tallied 13 kills in both matches. Junior Sami Slaughter added 11 and 10 kills in each respective match. Sophomore Madison Jurgens tipped 35 assists against Tulsa and 38 against Kansas City.
The Coyotes continued strong play into Saturday against Louisiana Tech. USD was led again by Slaughter, who earned All-Tournament honors with 11 kills in the match and 34 for the tournament. USD swept Louisiana Tech in straight sets.
Jurgens continued her strong performance with 32 more assists, bringing her tournament total to 105. Jurgens was awarded the tournament Most Valuable Player award and Summit League offensive player of the week. Sophomore Maddie Wiedenfeld was honored with her first career Summit League defensive player of the week honor.
The Coyotes hold the best record in the Summit League at 6-1, followed by Denver, the defending regular season champions, at 5-1. USD leads the conference with 13.91 kills/set. They also lead in sets won (18) and assists per sets at 12.7. The Coyotes’ offense is proficiently leading the Summit at .261 hitting percentage.
“I feel like on our team we don’t have any key players that we have to look out for because anyone can put the ball away on any given night,” Slaughter said.
Slaughter, along with Juhnke and Claire Gerdes are in the top five in kills per set in the conference. Jurgens is second in service aces per set and leads in assists per set.
The Coyotes have five matches left before conference play, three of which are at home. The Coyotes host the South Dakota Classic on Sept. 13 and 14 inside the Sanford Coyote Sports Center. Friday at noon, the Coyotes host UC Davis, followed by Wyoming at seven. Their final game of the weekend is against Iowa Saturday evening.
“We have been really pleased overall with how our team has pushed back when teams have challenged them,” head coach Leanne Williamson said. “There is still a lot of things we want to improve on, but we have been pleasantly surprised with some of the things our team has picked up on early on and make changes.”
