RAPID CITY, S.D. --- The South Dakota volleyball team will be at home this weekend for a pair of Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference matchups at Goodell Gymnasium. Friday the Lady 'Rockers will play host to the Western State  Mountaineers and then welcome the Colorado Mesa Mavericks Saturday evening.
 
The Lady Hardrockers' record is not indicative of how they have competed this season. The young squad seems to be improving more than their results show. They have won at least one set in their last four matches, their longest streak of the season.
 
Western State is 5-5 in the RMAC and sit eighth in the conference standings with a 9-9 overall record. However, the Mountaineers have only won two matches in their last six. This could be a great opportunity for the SD Mines (1-20, 0-10) to pick up their first RMAC win.
 
"Western State is a high risk-high reward team," said Hardrocker volleyball head coach Doug Tabbert. "They do some stuff that can be really high-error or really pay off for them."
 
Colorado Mesa will prove to be a much bigger challenge Saturday.  The Mavericks are 9-1 in conference play and 15-3 on the season. They have won seven-straight matches and are ranked second in the RMAC standings behind MSU-Denver (11-0).
 
"Colorado Mesa is one of the best teams in the conference, but we are going to go out and give them the best we have," said Coach Tabbert.
 
Mesa sophomor3e Mackenzie Edwards is currently third in the RMAC with 268 kills while senior setter Ali Svorinic has notched 660 assist on the season to put her third in the conference. As a team, Mesa has posted 102 aces so far this year for second in the RMAC.
 
Saturday's match is also the Dig Pink contest in which the Hardrockers will raise awareness for breast cancer. Both Friday's and Saturday's matches are 7 p.m. (MST) starts and both matches will be broadcast live on the RMAC Network at Stretch Internet at: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/sdsmt/ .