The Black Hills State Yellow Jackets (6-17 (2-9 RMAC)) are heading back to Rapid City to face their rivals, the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers (9-14 (6-5 RMAC), for the second time this season. The Yellow Jackets will look to get revenge on the Hardrockers for a tight four-set loss earlier in the year and will also look to get back in the win column before they end their season at home this weekend.
BLACK HILLS STATE STORYLINES
- Black Hills State is entering the final road stretch of their season sitting at 6-17 overall and 2-9 in conference play. They are coming off a one-game week this past week where they fell to Colorado School of Mines in three sets. The Jackets have fallen in all but one of their games dating back to October 4th and will be looking to get back in the win column here and end their four-game losing streak.
- The Yellow Jackets top stat categories this year have been team attacks per set (34.75), blocks per set (1.64), team total attacks (2,884), digs per set (14.82), and team total blocks (136.0).
- Black Hills State was predicted to finish 15th in the conference in the preseason RMAC Coaches’ Poll after finishing 15th in the conference last season. They are currently sitting in 12th with after a 2-9 start in conference play.
- Libero Ellie Thomas has been one of the top Libero in the RMAC this year. She is second in the RMAC in total digs with 395 and is third in digs per set with 4.76 ranking 56th in the country as well. She also has 13 aces including a career high five in the matchup versus Augustana. Thomas has had 15 or more digs in 14 of the 23 games and has reached ten in all of them. She earned a RMAC Defensive Player of the Week (10-20-25) after putting up four 20 dig games in a row before that streak ended this past weekend. This past week she had 11 digs in the match versus CSM.
- Emily Freeland is leading BHSU in kills this season. After tying her career high in kills with 20 in the season opener versus Augustana, Freeland has continued to pile on the kills. She currently sits at 228 kills. She also leads in kills per set with 2.75. Freeland has had ten or more kills in eight of the 23 matches this season. She also is second on the team in digs with 170 and is leading the team in receptions with 508 and 259.5. She had her first double-digit kill game since October 4 with 14 kills in the game versus the Cowgirls and then had six kills with a .313 hitting percentage against the Orediggers.
- BHSU is running a two-setter system, so Sydnie Tuioti-Mariner and Elena Atkinson are both taking on setting duties this year. Tuioti-Mariner had an All-Tournament honor in Minot after leading BHSU with 62 assists and also having seven aces including five in the game versus Minot State. Atkinson had 57 assists that weekend and is leading the season with 364 to Tuioti-Mariner’s 295 combining 659 assists between the two of them. They have also combined 254 digs. They combined for only 16 assists in the matchup versus Colorado Mines with Atkinson having nine and Tuioti-Mariner having seven. They also had 15 digs combined.
- Peyton McLeod and Jaeda Davis-Golliher have been a top middle duo for BHSU. Davis-Golliher leads the team with 54 total blocks and has a block in all but four games this year. She has had three or more in four of the last six games and also has 126 kills with at least three kills in all but four games this season. McLeod has 52 total blocks and also has 53 kills. She has had a block in 17 of her last 19 games and has had multiple in ten of the last 12 games including a career high seven versus Regis. They combined for three blocks versus CSM with McLeod having two
- Head coach Grayson DuBose enters his first season with the Yellow Jackets but has 14 years of head coaching experience at the D1 level prior to joining BHSU. He was head coach at Utah State for all 14 years and has a 195-246 career record with two WAC Coach of the Year awards and one NCAA Division 1 Tournament appearance.
SOUTH DAKOTA MINES STORYLINES
- South Dakota Mines is 9-14 and 6-5 in RMAC play so far. They did not win a single non-conference game this season, however they faced four top 25 ranked teams during their non-RMAC play and were able to get set wins in almost all of them. They started the season 2-10 and have won seven of their last 11 games. They have won five of their last seven games and just swept Colorado Mesa in Denver before being swept by #12 MSU Denver. They currently sit right on the bubble of the RMAC tournament.
- The Hardrockers rank at the top 100 in two categories so far this season. They rank 61st in team attacks per set (37.53), and 81st in blocks per set (2.06). They rank fifth and sixth in the RMAC in each of those categories, while also ranking seventh in assists per set (11.41).
- South Dakota Mines was picked to finish fourth in the RMAC with 154 points and seven third place votes. They currently sit in a ninth with a 6-5 record. They only sit one game out of the conference tournament and will need to keep winning to qualify this year.
- Senior Libero Hannah Benes is the best libero in the RMAC this year. She has 405 digs which rank first in the RMAC and 74th in the country. She also averages 4.88 digs per set, which ranks first in the conference and 41st in the country. Hannah Benes is a one-time RMAC Defensive Player of the Week for her performance week three. She had 41 digs and three aces in those two matches. This past week she had another great outing by posting 41 digs and having 30 in the five-set match versus Colorado School of Mines.
- Lexi Glendenning is the top half of the 1-2 punch for SDM. She has 268 kills this year which puts her sixth in the RMAC. She is also fourth in the RMAC in total attacks (785), third in attacks per set (10.33), and fourth in kills per set (3.53). She has had ten or more kills in all but five games this season and also had a season-high 22 kills versus Pueblo. She also has 17 blocks, 77 digs, and seven aces. This past week she had 27 kills with 13 and 14 in each game. She had a higher than .310 hitting percentage in each game as well.
- Hannah Joseph is the top setter for the Rockers and one of the top setters in the RMAC. She is sixth in the conference in total assists with 582 and is fifth in the RMAC in assists per set (7.19). She had a career-high 55 assists versus Fort Lewis a couple of weeks ago and had 54 this past weekend versus CSU Pueblo. She has had 20 assists in all but two games this season. Since the BHSU game, she has been starting to get used in tandem and has since slowed her production down. She has only reached 25 assists in a match once since and that was this past game versus CSM.
- This is head coach Lauren Prochazka’s 8th season at SDM where she has a career record of 88-113 at Mines. Her total career record is 130-136, which includes the two seasons she spent at Minnesota Morris.
Series History
- BHSU is up on the rival series 37-31 over SDM. However, South Dakota Mines has won six of the last eight and four in a row.
- The previous matchup versus these two teams was a 3-1 win by the Hardrockers in the King Center earlier this year. Wellhoefer and Freeland each had ten or more kills in that game while Thomas had 14 digs. Glendenning had 16 kills in that match but a .382 hitting percentage.
- The Yellow Jackets lost both matches last year 3-0 and haven’t won a set versus the Hardrockers since 2023.
