KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The South Dakota Coyotes swept Louisiana Tech volleyball 3-0 in Saturday's KC Roos Klassic Finale.
 
LA Tech (3-3) saw positive offensive contributions from middle blockers Marie-Helene Verlinden and Laura Ehieze. Verlinden totaled 6 kills with no errors for a .545 hitting percentage, and Ehieze added 4 kills with a .500 hitting percentage. Morgan Currie finished with a match-high 20 digs and Abigail Hildenbrand added 8 more.
 
Maddie Wiedenfeld and Claire Gerdes paced the Coyotes with a combined 17 kills and .500 hitting percentage. Wiedenfeld also added six block assists.
 
"We scheduled this tournament anticipating it being our most challenging one on the schedule with every team bringing the level of attackers we are going to see all through C-USA. While we are of course disappointed in the end results, there were bright spots throughout the weekend that showed us the potential we have when we truly key in to do what we do well," said Lady Techster head coach Amber McCray.
 
The Lady Techsters hung with South Dakota early in the first set, getting a kill from Ehieze and an ace from Jordyn Carswell to tie the frame at 8. The Coyotes then used three straight kills from Sami Slaughter to take an 11-8 lead. South Dakota maintained that advantage for much of the set en route to a 25-19 win.
 
Tech responded with its best frame of the day in the second set. The Lady Techsters hit .333  with 15 kills, 5 of which came from Verlinden, and made a late run to knot the set at 22. Verlinden, Kaitlyn Adams, and Madeline Davis contributed a kill each during the run. The Coyotes responded, however, and notched the final three points of the set to win 25-22.
 
The final set of the day was all South Dakota. The Coyotes blocked five attacks and held the Techsters to just seven kills in the frame, leading to a 25-13 win.
 
"South Dakota is a really good, disciplined team that brings firepower from every position," said McCray. "We knew this would be a huge challenge, but we felt if we could keep them out of system as much as possible we could put ourselves in position to compete. While we did that in spurts, inconsistency hurt us as it did for much of the weekend."
 
Tech will have an opportunity to bounce back on Tuesday when the team travels to Jackson State for a mid-week match.
 
Be sure to follow @LATechVB on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to keep up with the Lady Techster volleyball team.