MITCHELL — Mount Marty Col-lege beat rival Dakota Wesleyan 3-0to pick up its first Great Plains Ath-letic Conference volleyball winTuesday night at the Corn Palace.

The Lancers, now 1-4 in GPACplay, won by set scores of 25-19, 25-21, 25-20.

Amanda Dirksen led MMC with10 kills, while Kate Lingscheit andLexie Branson each had six kills.Caitlyn Illg had 25 set assists and10 digs.

Danielle Byrd led DWU (3-13, 0-3) with 19 kills on 30 swings, whileBriana Jung posted 30 set assists.The Tigers were hurt by 27 attackerrors and 10 service errors.

Mount Marty, 3-12 overall, hostsBuena Vista on Friday night atCimpl Arena.

Creighton 3, USD 0OMAHA, Neb. — Creighton Uni-

versity put two players over 15kills in a four-set win over the Uni-versity of South Dakota in collegevolleyball action Tuesday night inOmaha.

Creighton won by set scores of25-18, 25-18, 21-25, 25-21.

The hometown Bluejays (12-2),off to their best start in school his-tory, got 20 kills from Leah McNaryand 18 kills from Kelli Browning.

The Coyotes (7-9) were ham-pered by 28 attack errors and a.110 attack percentage. KendallKritenbrink led with 17 kills, whileKim Bulaga added 13 kills and 10digs. Tori Kroll posted 39 set as-sists and Riley Haug had a team-high 16 digs.

USD returns to Summit Leagueaction Saturday night for a 7 p.m.match against Kansas City at theDakotaDome.

Wednesday, 9.26.12ON THE WEB: www.yankton.net

SPORTS DEPARTMENT: sports@yankton.net8 PRESS DAKOTANsportsA Look At The

Illinois St. RedbirdsRECORD/RANKING: 4-0, No. 12 FCS

coaches poll, No. 13 The Sports NetworkLAST WEEK: Illinois State out-gained

Western Illinois 373-137 in total yardage onthe way to a 23-3 conference win. ISU al-lowed only 82 yards rushing on 38 carries.

KEY OFFENSIVE PLAYERS: Dar-relynn Dunn (RB, 422 yards, 7 TD), MattBrown (QB, 1,030 yards, 10 TD, 2 INT), Ty-rone Walker (WR, 26 catches, 335 yards, 1TD)

KEY DEFENSIVE PLAYERS: MikeZimmer (LB, 36 tackles, 3 sacks, 1 INT),Colton Underwood (DL, 30 tackles, 6 forloss, 4.5 sacks), Ben Ericksen (S, 3 INT)

NOTE: Illinois State has started the sea-son 4-0 for the first time since 1967. ISU isthe second unbeaten team remaining in theMVFC.

BY JEREMY HOECKjeremy.hoeck@yankton.net

Joe Glenn uses words like “mobile” and“chaotic.” Brock Spack calls it “resilient.”

Any way the two coaches slice it, the de-fense Illinois State will bring to Vermillion onSaturday figures to provide the University ofSouth Dakota with a significant challenge inits Missouri Valley Football Conference debut.

Illinois State (4-0, 1-0), which moved upto No. 12 in the FCS coaches poll and No. 13in The Sports Network poll, boasts one ofthe league’s stingiest defenses — rankingfirst in takeaways (plus 8) and second insacks (13).

“This is probably a unique defense thatwe’ll see,” USD coach Glenn said during

Tuesday’s media teleconference. “You don’tsee many other teams who will stunt over 60percent of the time, but that’s the way theydo it.

“They can make a lot of confusion; verychaotic if you let it get to you,” he added.“You have to find a way to burn it. You haveto go after them with the same mentality.”

The Redbirds, with 17 big-school trans-fers, have found ways to harass opposing of-fenses.

With a resume that includes a win overFBS Eastern Michigan three weeks ago, Illi-nois State started six FBS transfers on de-fense last week against Western Illinois — a23-3 victory. Four of those transfers came onthe line, helping the Redbirds rank second intotal defense.

“We led the league in total defense lastyear, but I think we’re a little better than wewere a year ago in certain spots,” coachSpack said Tuesday. “We’re improving, butobviously not where we need to be yet. We’vebeen resilient and been able to adjust to whatpeople do to us, and find a way to win.”

The two teams met last season in Nor-mal, Ill., with the Redbirds coming out ontop 28-3. USD, of course, has a new headcoach and has transformed from a 4-3 defen-sive system to a 3-4 under new coordinatorJason Petrino.

Spack pointed to USD’s offense to be a lotlike the 2011 version under coordinator WesBeschorner, though the team has a newquarterback in sophomore Josh VanderMaten.

“They have the same offensive coordina-tor, so from that standpoint, they’re similar,”Spack said. “They lost a quarterback to grad-uation, but the new guy is a very good ath-lete.

“One side is similar with the coordinator,but the other side is quite a bit different.”

Illinois State, however, has many of thesame faces the Coyotes saw last fall.

The Redbirds average 41 points a game,thanks to 257.5 yards through the air andrank second in the MVFC in total offense(446.8 yards). Each of their skill positions arehandled by seniors, with running back Dar-relynn Dunn (422 yards, 7 TD) and receiverTyrone Walker (26 catches, 335 yards, 1 TD).

Coyotes To Face ‘Unique’ Defense In MVFC Opener

COYOTES | PAGE 9

JAMES D. CIMBUREK/P&D

Mount Marty's Jose Marquez scores a penalty kick for the Lancers during the second half of their Great PlainsAthletic Conference men's soccer match with Dakota Wesleyan on Tuesday at Easton Field. DWU won 3-2 in dou-ble-overtime.

Dakota Wesleyan Escapes Lancers 3-2 In Double-OvertimeBY JAMES D. CIMBUREKjames.cimburek@yankton.net

Down a man and with a backupgoalkeeper minding the net, theMount Marty College men’s soccerteam found the team unity andtoughness they’d been looking forso far this season. Unfortunatelyfor the Lancers, the team ran out ofgas before it could capitalize.

Dakota Wesleyan’s Eric Mollerscored off a direct free kick in the107th minute as the Tigers out-lasted MMC 3-2 in Great Plains Ath-letic Conference overtime men’ssoccer action on Tuesday at Eas-ton Field.

“We’ve talked a lot about beingpositive and playing aggressively,”said Mount Marty head coachNathan Epp. “Today was the firsttime we’ve done that. The guys re-ally rallied. They were just gassedat the end.”

Dakota Wesleyan took the leadmidway through the first half,when Hugo Gonzalez put back a re-bound off his penalty kick attempt.

After having just four shots inthe first half, the Lancers came outaggressively in the second half.MMC forced an early foul in its of-fensive zone. Tyler Neu sent thefree kick toward the goal then,after James Elliott redirected the

ball, Josh Koch found a gap be-tween Dakota Wesleyan goalkeeperAlex Nelson and another defenderto tie the match.

Nearly 10 minutes later, Mollerscored off a direct free kick to giveDWU back the lead. The Lancerstied it 10 minutes later, when LeviGomez was taken down in the boxand Jose Marquez sent the ballhome on a penalty kick.

Less than five minutes later,MMC goalkeeper Oscar Martinez-Mojica took down a Dakota Wes-leyan player on a breakaway,drawing a red card and the ejectionthat came with it.

“Our goalie took one for theteam,” Koch said. “If he hadn’t, theguy would have scored.”

Despite playing a man short,the Lancers maintained the drawthrough the rest of regulation andthe first overtime. In the secondovertime, Moller again found theback of the net on a direct freekick, ending the game and givingthe Tigers their second victory ofthe season.

“We feel lucky we got the win,”said DWU head coach JeremyTosaya. “They (MMC) played agreat game. They played to win.”

DWU held a 30-14 edge in shots,

BY JAMES D. CIMBUREKjames.cimburek@yankton.net

The Mount Marty Collegewomen’s soccer team lookeddrained in its third match infour days, dropping a 5-0 deci-sion to previously-winlessDakota Wesleyan in Great PlainsAthletic Conference action onTuesday at Easton Field.

Lancer head coach NathanEpp, though, wouldn’t use fa-tigue as an excuse.

“We never put it together.We were flat the whole game,”he said. “We just lacked inten-sity.”

DWU got on the board in the15th minute, when Linsey Peter-son’s high shot went off thehands of backup goalkeeperDanielle Gill, a freshman whostarted in place of Jennifer Nel-son. Thara Ali Said and MeganJohnson scored goals undertwo minutes apart midway

DWU WomenBlank MMC 5-0

MMC MEN | PAGE 9 LANCERS | PAGE 9

BY VANCE JANAKP&D Correspondent

Yankton volleyball coach LeasaWoodward smiled after congratulat-ing her team Tuesday night.

The Gazelles put together one oftheir better performances of theseason in beating ESD foe Brook-ings 25-23, 25-20, 25-20 at the Sum-mit Center.

“We played a lot more aggres-sively tonight than we have in ourlast couple outings,” Woodwardsaid. “That’s a big win over a goodteam, especially in three. We had aterrible practice yesterday. I wenthome so frustrated. Obviously theyknew what they needed to fix. A lotof it is attitude and energy and theyplayed with that tonight.”

Yankton (3-4) used a scrappy de-fense that dug up many Brookings(7-3) attacks, which led to offensiveopportunities for the Gazelles.Yankton senior hitters Mikala Horaand Kelsey Fitzgerald powered theoffense – combining for 34 kills –while Fitzgerald added a team-lead-ing 13 digs and Hora had 12.

“We’ve struggled the last couplematches,” Hora said, who pacedthe Gazelles with 19 kills. “But forus to come out tonight and play theway we did, there’s not much moreyou can ask for.”

Woodward didn’t know what toexpect out of her team, which wascoming off of loses to AberdeenCentral and Brandon Valley. Mon-day’s practice left her with moreconcern.

Hora said the team didn’t talkabout what it needed to do to fixthe problems.

“We all knew that we didn’t havea good practice. I think that’s whywe came out and were focusedtonight,” Hora said. “Talking is a bigissue on our court. Tonight, wetalked a lot and we’ve got to keepdoing that because it contributedso much to the way we played.”

Things started out shaky forYankton. Brookings built an 18-11first-set lead. Eleven of those pointscame off Gazelle errors. Following aYankton timeout, the Gazellesscored six straight points. Fitzger-ald contributed three kills and ablock during the spurt.

Trailing 22-19, the Gazelles threekills from Hora and a Bobcat errorto go up 23-22. After Brookings tiedthe set 23-all, Hora put Yanktonahead with a kill before a Brookingserror closed it out.

“Yankton came out and played afantastic match,” Brookings coachJodi Melius said. “We knew Horaand Fitzgerald were going to begreat hitters. We knew they wouldrely on them. We just weren’t ableto step up on defense. They reallytook it to us and we just weren’table to step up and get stops.”

Tied 19-all in the second set,Yankton scored five points off Bob-cat errors before Hora’s sixth kill ofthe set gave the Gazelles a 2-0 ad-vantage.

“Both Mikala and Kelsey have

YHS Sweeps Brookings

JEREMY HOECK/P&D

Yankton senior Kelsey Butler, left, goes up for a block against Brookings outside hitter Kara Robbins duringtheir ESD volleyball match Tuesday night at the Summit Center.

Lancers Sweep DWU

VERMILLION — Top-rankedWagner came into Vermillion andswept the Tanagers in volleyballaction on Tuesday night. KaylaDeurmier was the leader for RedRaiders, picking up 25 assists and10 digs.

Nicole Weber added nine kills,four digs and two aces in the win.Gina Soukup and Alex Dvorak eachhad seven kills a piece. SydneyBreen posted 17 digs for the RedRaiders.

For Vermillion, Mariah Larsonhad 14 assists. Sarah Hughes-Berheim recorded 10 digs in theloss. Paige Olson recorded threekills and six digs.

Wagner moves to 14-1 on theseason and will host Winner onThursday.

Vermillion is now 3-8 after a lossand hosts West Central on Thurs-day in Vermillion.WAGNER (14-1) ........................................................25 25 25VERMILLION (3-8) ....................................................17 20 14

Lutheran High Northeast 3,Crofton 0

NORFOLK, Neb. — Lutheran High North-east defeated Crofton Tuesday night 25-16, 25-16, 25-21 in Norfolk.

For Crofton, Allison Arens had 10 assists, sixkills, six digs and one block. MaKenzie Johnsonmade 13 assists, three digs and two aces for thenight, and Bridget Arens had five blocks, fourdigs and three kills.

No stats were reported for LHNE. Crofton travels to Atkinson on Thursday to

face West Holt and Lutheran High will travel toClarkson to participate in the Clarkson/Leigh Tri-angular. CROFTON (8-8) ........................................................16 16 21LUTHERAN HIGH NORTHEAST (15-3)....................25 25 25

Parkston 3, Tripp-Delmont-Armour 0

TRIPP — Parkston won game one in latefashion by the score of 30-28 and went on tosweep Tripp-Delmont-Armour 3-0 on Tuesdaynight. The Lady Trojans won the two next twogames to complete the sweep by the scores of25-19, 25-13.

Kristina Radke had 12 assists, 10 digs andfour kills, leading Parkston. Whitney Weber

recorded 13 assists, 11 digs, three kills and twoaces. Laura Weiss had 12 kills, seven blocks,five digs, and two aces on the night.

For TDA, Kelli Batterman han Laura Fuersteach had 13 digs. Hannah Just recorded 14 digsin the contest. Jessica Sandau had 12 digs andan ace.

Parkston will move to 7-8 (1-2 in conferenceplay) and will travel to Scotland on Thursday totake on the Highlanders.

TDA moves to 5-8 (0-4 in conference play)and also is on the road, going to Corsica to takeon Corsica-Stickney on Thursday.PARKSTON (7-8).......................................................30 25 25TRIPP-DELMONT-AMOUR (5-8) ..............................28 19 13

Andes Central 3, Colome 0LAKE ANDES — Krista Winckler had 10 kills

and sister Kellie Winckler added nine kills asAndes Central swept winless Colome 25-16, 28-26, 25-11 on Tuesday night in Lake Andes.

Dennisha Johanneson added six kills andfive ace serves for the Eagles (13-1), whileSierra Svatos posted 21 set assists and sevendigs.

For Colome (0-13), Becca Moorhead hadfive kills and eight digs, and Tracy Routh postedseven set assists.

The Eagles won the JV match 2-0.Andes Central visits Mitchell Christian on

Thursday and Colome will play in a Stuart (Neb.)quadrangular next Tuesday.COLOME (0-13).........................................................16 26 11ANDES CENTRAL (13-1) ..........................................25 28 25

Platte-Geddes 3, Dakota Christian 0

CORSICA — The Platte-Geddes Black Pan-thers swept the Dakota Christian Cadets 25-15,25-22, 25-10 Tuesday night in Corsica.

Kelli Sprik recorded 29 assists, eight digs,two kills and two aces for the night, and ShelbyRabenberg had nine digs, eight kills and twoaces. Josie DeGroot contributed 17 kills, fiveblocks and three digs.

For the Cadets, Amber Baan Hoffman hadsix digs, six kills and two blocks, while BrooklynVanderPol made five kills, four digs, three acesand two blocks.

Platte-Geddes travels to Presho to faceLyman on Thursday, while Dakota Christian willhost Marty Indian. PLATTE-GEDDES (6-4) ............................................25 25 25DAKOTA CHRISTIAN (5-7) .......................................15 22 10

Top-Ranked WagnerStops Vermillion 3-0

VOLLEYBALL | PAGE 9 GAZELLES | PAGE 9