SDSU volleyball sets sights on conference tournament title

BROOKINGS – The South Dakota State volleyball program has reached new heights, making the NCAA Tournament in each of the past two seasons. Now, the expectations are high, but there is still something that has eluded the Jackrabbits the past two years, a conference tournament championship.

SDSU won the Summit League regular season title in each of the past two seasons but lost in the conference tournament championship match both times. SDSU head coach Dan Georgalas said his team is proud of making the NCAA Tournament in back-to-back seasons but they want to be Summit League Tournament champions in 2026.

“I think it's fun that a group who has accomplished so much over the last two years, there’s still something that they haven’t accomplished. Our resume of success is really long and we’re grateful for that. But this group believes that we have unfinished business and we’re playing with a bit of a chip on our shoulder that we still have something to prove,” Georgalas said.

Part of the reason the Jackrabbits were able to make the NCAA Tournament without winning the conference tournament was because of the strength of schedule they had in the non-conference the past two seasons. Last year, SDSU beat two NCAA Tournament teams in South Florida and Northern Iowa. The Jacks also had wins over Ole Miss, Dayton, Boise State and Wyoming.

This year, SDSU will have another difficult non-conference schedule and it is highlighted by the No. 1 team in the country, Nebraska, visiting Brookings on Sept. 2. The Jacks will also play No. 14 ranked Minnesota and Washington at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls on Sept. 18 and 19 and play at No. 15 Kansas on Sept. 11.

Georgalas said those types of non-conference matchups prepare his team for what lies ahead at the end of the season.

“We’ve finished in the top 40 [in strength of schedule] the last two years. We haven’t shied away from that type of competition. Our team expects it, so we're excited to play teams from the Big Ten and the Big 12. We want to be back in the NCAA Tournament as Summit League champions and we feel like to win that [championship] game on our home floor in November, we need to go through those challenges in the non-conference,” Georgalas said.

The Jackrabbits lost three players to graduation from last year’s team in Sydni Schetnan, Rachel Wieber and Annalee Ventling-Brown. But SDSU did return the back-to-back Summit League Player of the Year in outside hitter Sylvie Zgonc.

Zgonc was an AVCA Honorable Mention All-American last season and became the fourth player in conference history to win the Player of the Year Award in back-to-back seasons. She had 451 kills last season and 4.34 kills per set, which were each fourth in program history in a single season. 

Zgonc said she decided to come back to SDSU for her senior season because she wanted to finish what she started.

“When I committed here, I committed to play for four years here and that has always been my intention. I love this place and would not want my experience to be anywhere else,” Zgonc said.

Zgonc is joined by senior setter Rylee Martin. Martin earned Summit League First Team honors last year as she had 1,035 assists, which was fourth in a single season in program history. Her 10.25 assists per set last year was the best mark in program history.

Georgalas said having returners like Zgonc and Martin, as well as Madison Burr, Hannah Klein and Joslyn Richardson, is a testament to the program and helps a lot.

“We have a lot of returners coming back, and this group is special. You know, they believed in our vision for what Jackrabbit volleyball can be, and helped us tremendously to build it, so I’m excited for them. They do a great job of setting the standard in our locker room and in the practice gym, and it’ll be sad to see them graduate soon,” Georgalas said.

SDSU has a total of eight new players. The Jacks have three transfers, four freshman and then Brooklyn Meyer, who will be playing volleyball after playing on the Jackrabbit basketball team for the past four years.

Georgalas said losing Sydni Schetnan to graduation left a big hole in the middle. However, he thinks he has the players to fill it.

“We need to kind of replace some of the production in the middle,” Georgalas said. “So, our freshman Hannah Misna has done a great job of coming in and just being really athletic and really physical.

“We have two transfers in Claire Logealas from Dayton and Brooklyn Meyer from our women’s basketball team, who are both six-foot-two, six-foot-three, again, who are providing a lot of physicality at the net for a team who was top 20 in the country in blocking last season.”

Georgalas also noted that Taylor Byl, a redshirt sophomore from Sioux Falls, is also in the mix to start at the middle blocker position.

The other transfers include Katelyn Van Kirk, a junior outside hitter from Boise State, Anna Johannson, a sophomore defensive specialist from New Mexico, and Patrycja Labucka, a junior right-side hitter from Florida Southwestern State.

The Jackrabbits will begin the season next weekend in Malibu, Calif., at the Pepperdine Tournament. SDSU will play Sacramento State on Aug. 28 at 5 p.m. Central time.  The Jacks will then take on Pepperdine on Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. and will close out the weekend with a match against Villanova on Aug. 30 at 12 p.m.

Zgonc said she’s excited for the season to get underway but knows they have to take things one match at a time if they want to complete the goal of winning a conference tournament championship.

“I’m so excited,” Zgonc said. “This is the toughest non-conference schedule we’ve had in my time. [Playing against] high-level competition like that is just something that I wanted out of my college experience, and I’m really excited to get to experience that with this group.

“... [Winning the conference tournament] is definitely in the back of our minds every day, but we can’t look forward to that. You know, we still have a whole season of non-conference games and then conference play. So we have to focus on those games first and just take it day by day.”