MINOT, N.D. --- The South Dakota School of Mines women's volleyball 2017 campaign got underway Friday as the Lady Hardrockers headed to North Dakota for the Minot State Classic Volleyball Tournament. And despite dropping their first two matches of the season, the squad performed very well and were competitive in both contests.

"I think we all did a much better job of adjusting to the changes we needed to make in the second match today," said Lady Hardrocker volleyball head coach Jenni Bulduc. "There were a lot of nerves and baggage from last year in that first match, but we know that working through that is going to be part of the process."

The first match saw SD Mines fall to Bemidji State, 3-1. The Lady Beavers defeated the 'Rockers, 25-7, 25-17, 24-26, 25-8.

SD Mines tallied 26 kills in the game and were 105-134 on the attack, added 24 assists, recorded 58 digs and came away with eight total blocks. Bemidji went 111-128 on the attack with 47 kills, had 40 assists, 66 digs and 15 total blocks.

Individually for the Hardrockers, junior Darla Drenkhahn paced her team with seven kills and was 19-23 on the attack, while junior Anna Breidt added five kills and senior Emily Newton collected four. Sophomore Allie Boggs had 15 assists in the match while senior Mikkella Reese led her team with 13 digs, sophomore Allie Brown had 12 and junior Alye Wagner added 11.

Against Minot State, SD Mines played a great match, but came up just short after rallying back to the host school (also the Beavers) and forcing a fifth set. SD Mines came up short though, 3-2. The Minot Beavers defeated SD Mines, 25-23, 25-17, 24-26, 18-25, 15-11.

"I was really proud of how they came back and played in the Minot state match after that first loss. Minot runs one of the fastest pin offenses I've seen, and when they are in system, they are really deadly with it," Bulduc said. "We had to make a lot of blocking switches to get some touches on those swings, and our athletes managed that well."

The Hardrockers went 125-164 on the attack and recorded 45 kills in the contest. They also tallied 39 assists, 71 digs and 13 total blocks. Minot was 130-168 on the attack with 49 kills, 47 assists, 74 digs and 21 total blocks.
Individually for SD Mines, Reese came up with 14 kills to lead the team and was 33-40 on the attack while Breidt and Newton both contributed with 10 kills each. Boggs racked up 22 assists and Wagner led the charge for the Hardrockers with 22 digs.

Emily Newton was really solid for us defensively and offensively, and got some key blocks for us today," Bulduc added. "Junior transfer Alye Wagner impressed me a lot as well with being a leader by example and with her volleyball IQ. She was always in the hitters/blockers ears giving constant information. Also, our bench brought atmosphere to the gym. They gave us energy when we needed it and gave us a lot of good insight which helped us make adjustments that kept us in the match."
 
The Hardrockers are back at it on Saturday with a pair of matches, first squaring off with the MSU Billings Yellowjackets at 8am (MST) and then close out the tournament against Minnesota State – Moorhead at 2 p.m.