SPEARFISH, S.D. --- The South Dakota School of Mines women's volleyball team traveled up to Spearfish, S.D., to face off with long-time rival Black Hills State in a Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference match Tuesday night at the Young Center, where the Yellow Jackets got the better of the Lady Hardrockers, 3-1.

Black Hills State defeated SD Mines, 25-12, 25-18, 20-25, 25-13. In the team tallies, the Hardrockers went 98-125 and collected 26 kills to go along with 25 assists, 53 digs and four total blocks. The Yellow Jackets posted 43 kills and was 103-124 on the attack with 43 assists, 65 digs and 33 total blocks.

"We are very Jekyll and Hyde right now—we truly are. We were never really in the first set," said Hardrocker volleyball head coach Doug Tabbert. "We closed the gap in the second and then controlled the third set throughout. We played better in every phase at that point and got ourselves back in the match. Then the fourth set was as troubling as the third set was good. It is a struggle to maintain momentum throughout a match with as many up and down swings as we have had at times, and tonight was a good example."

Individually, freshman Caryn Hazard paced the Hardrockers with 11 kills and was 26-34 on the attack while sophomores Anna Breidt and Justine Langus both contributed with five kills. Freshman Allie Boggs made good on 24 assists while sophomore Elizabeth Jensen led the team with 19 digs and freshman Makinze Maiden tacked on 15. Junior Emily Newton went down in the first set with an injury.

"Losing Emily in the first set certainly didn't help our cause. She is our most experienced and veteran player on a team that is characterized by youth and inexperience, so that added to the challenge tonight," Tabbert said. "Justine helped plug that gap, so she deserves some credit for stepping in and doing that.  Unfortunately, we may be without Emily for an extended period of time based on how things looked tonight. We'll need a number of people to increase their level of output to help us deal with her loss, so we'll look for that moving forward."

The loss drops SD Mines to 1-19 on the season and 0-9 in the RMAC. Next up, the Hardrockers play host to Westminster College Saturday afternoon in a 3 p.m. match at the King Center.