SIOUX FALLS, S.D. -- The University of Sioux Falls Volleyball Team (11-6, 6-3 NSIC) finished off the home weekend with a dominating 3-0 win over Minot State on Saturday afternoon in the Stewart Center after a 3-0 win over U-Mary on Friday night. The Cougars won six straight sets this weekend and pushed their winning streak to fourth matches. USF is now 11-6 on the season and 6-3 in NSIC play.

The Cougars took control of the match from set one, taking a 25-12 win in the opening set and then rolling to 25-6 and 25-10 victories in the final two sets.

USF Head Coach Dan Mathews was impressed with the team's performance and particularly the underclassmen in the sweep of Minot State.

"It was a great opportunity to see some of our younger players on the court today," said Mathews, who is in his first year as head coach for the Cougars. "We played five freshmen tonight, four of which were middle hitters." 

"We were really impressed by their performance and how, when they were in, there really was no drop in the level of play. You could tell that all the hard work they have been putting in is paying off," said Matthews whose team goes on the road for matches at Upper Iowa on October 15 and at No. 9 Winona State on Oct. 16.

From the start, the Cougars came out swinging, putting down 16 kills on 43 attempts for a .209 hitting percentage. USF also recorded four service aces and recorded zero ball handling errors in rolling to the 25-12 opening set win.

In the second set, USF had 12 kills on 23 attempts for a .435 hitting percentage with just two errors. The Cougars tallied five service aces and three blocks on Minot's 16 attack attempts with zero kills.

The final set saw the Cougars hitting .304 percent, with 10 kills on 23 attempts and three attack errors. USF registered five more aces and put up two blocks. 

Individually, the Cougars were led on offense by Averey Yaksich, who put down 15 kills and had 18.5 of the team's points. Yaksich now has a league-best 277 kills, which ranks top-five in NCAA DII. As noted by Matthews, several freshmen made impacts today including outside hitter Anna Ruhland, who made her first career debut and led the team in hitting percentage (1.000). Madison Wassink had a team-high four service aces for the Cougars. On defense, TiaRose Nagami had 11 digs for USF. Also for USF freshman Grace Hanel had five kills and two service aces with two block assists. Another freshman, Chessa Devine added two kills with three block assists. Krista Goerger had 31 assists, two service aces, three digs, two block assists and two kills in another solid all-around performance.

"A real highlight of the match was seeing Anna (Ruhland) hit 1.000 and Madison Wassink scoring four aces from the serving line," said Mathews.  "I was also very impressed with Averey Yaksich, who averaged five kills per set in the match."