SDSU volleyball: After historic season, Jackrabbits looking for more in 2025

Oct. 14—BROOKINGS — A steady rebuild under Coach Dan Georgalas paid off in an historic, record-setting 2024 season for South Dakota State volleyball.

And now they're looking for more in 2025.

As the Jackrabbits prepare to host North Dakota State on Thursday night at First Bank & Trust Arena they bring an 11-3 record into the match, including a 5-0 mark in Summit League action.

The Jacks went 27-3 last year, dominating the conference only to get upset in the Summit League tournament by rival USD. The Jacks made the NCAA tournament anyway, earning an at-large bid thanks to the impressive resume they put together over the course of the season.

They're well on their way to something similar this year.

Not only is SDSU off to an unbeaten start in the Summit League, they challenged themselves with a strong non-conference schedule to bolster their chances of another at-large bid — should they need it.

After last year's loss to the Coyotes, they're definitely motivated to capture both the Summit League regular season and conference titles, and, they hope, make a deeper run in the NCAA tournament.

"Every team is different and is going to write a different story," said junior setter Rylee Martin. "Our core is the same of what we do as Jackrabbit volleyball, but we're always adapting and trying to improve and do new things. Last year was uncharted territory but now that's the standard. Our goal this year is to win the Summit League championship on our home court, get back to the tournament and win games, because we know this team is capable of doing that."

SDSU opened the season with a 3-1 win over Illinois, setting the tone and signaling that momentum from last year had carried over. Their non-conference slate also included wins over Ole Miss, Wyoming, Boise State, Dayton and South Flordia, the latter two of whom were champions of their conferences last year. The Jacks' losses are to No. 18 Minnesota, Boise State and a Northern Iowa team that was receiving Top 25 votes at the time.

"We scheduled appropriately and our group did a great job," said Georgalas, who has a 90-64 mark in five-plus seasons at the helm. "We've done ourselves a lot of favors with RPI and at-large possibilities, but that's not the goal. The goal is to be playing our best volleyball in November."

The work Georgalas has done to get the Jacks where they are has been impressive. SDSU was among the worst programs in Division I when he took over, having gone 24-120 in the five years prior to his arrival.

After going 6-11 in a COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, SDSU won 19 and 18 games in years two and three under Georgalas. They hit a snag in 2023, going 9-20, but it all came together last year. The Jacks started the year 22-0 and carried a 27-1 record into the tournament title match against USD. They then lost their first-round NCAA tournament match to Miami. It was the program's first appearance in the tournament since 2007.

Georgalas was named Summit League coach of the year and hitter Sylvie Zgonc player of the year.

That success only lit a fire going into this season.

"Now we know how good we can be," said Zgonc. "We go into practice every day like, we can be this good and we just have to get one percent better every day, and then we'll be unstoppable. We know we're gonna get everyone's best when we play and that makes it exciting to play."

The Jacks have been a strong defensive team, leading the Summit in blocks and opponent's hitting percentage and ranking third in digs. They're a formidable offensive team, too, with Zgonc leading the league in kills with 215 (4.1 per set) while Sydni Schetnan (.354) and Madison Burr (.276) are both in the top 10 in hitting percentage. Martin ranks second in the league in assists, while Schetnan and Burr rank 2nd and 3rd in blocks.

Hannah Klein (125 kills), Annalee Ventling-Brown (65 kills), Joslyn Richardson (167 digs), Maggie Meister (113 digs) and Rachel Wieber (104 digs) have also played key roles.

"We need to keep being aggressive and limiting free balls and tips," said Georgalas, whose team will host the Summit League tournament Nov. 23-25. "Our high end is really high. It's our job as coaches to figure out how we get close to that and sustain it. We're not trying to do what we did last year. We're trying to do something different, something better. That means we have to evolve, we have to adapt. And I think our group is really buying into that and doing a good job of it."