SPEARFISH, S.D.- The Black Hills State Yellow Jackets (9-13 (4-6 RMAC)) are at home this week for the final two home games of the year. To start this week, BHSU will face the South Dakota Mines Hardrockers (17-5 (7-3 RMAC)) in the newest edition of the Black Hills Brawl Rivalry Series presented by Ford. The Yellow Jackets, who currently lead the rivalry series 3-2 will look to hold their lead over the Hardrockers. Purchase SDM Tickets Here Click to watch on the RMAC Network Click to view live stats on StatBroadcast KNOW BEFORE YOU GO BLACK HILLS STATE STORYLINES SOUTH DAKOTA MINES STORYLINES Date/Time/Location: October 27, 2026 at 6 PM in A2 Arena in Spearfish, S.D. Live Stream: RMAC Network (Pay-Per-View) Tickets: Tickets can be purchased at the link above. Black Hills Brawl Rivalry Series Presented by Ford: The Ford Rivalry Series will bring added significance to 14 head-to-head contests between the Hardrockers and Yellow Jackets throughout the athletics season, with a total of 22 points available across 11 sports. Football will carry the most points in a single contest, with three points awarded to the winner. Volleyball, men's basketball and women's basketball will each feature two contests, with two points available per contest. Men's cross country, women's cross country, men's indoor track and field, women's indoor track and field, men's outdoor track and field, women's outdoor track and field and women's golf will each contribute one point to the overall series. Black Hills State is now 9-13 (4-6 RMAC) as they continue to stay in the RMAC playoff race. BHSU was able to go 1-1 in the RMAC Power Pod and earn a crucial confidence boosting win over Western Colorado when they pulled off the reverse sweep and took down the Mountaineers 3-2 with 15 blocks and 15 aces. The 15 aces were tied for the most aces in a single match in the D2 era for BHSU. They tied a match versus Minot State in 2023. The Yellow Jackets were able to have a 4-4 non-conference schedule after taking out MSU Billings, Western New Mexico, UMary, and Upper Iowa in the non-conference tournaments. BHSU was able to get revenge on UMary, who beat them early in the season as they produced the best hitting percentage in BHSU's D2 history, hitting .452 over the course of the game with only six attack errors. The Yellow Jackets entered the season fresh off a season where they had the most wins in a season since 2021 and the most conference wins since 2022. The Yellow Jackets went 6-20 (2-12 RMAC) last season. They went 3-1 in the 1st International Bank Homecoming Classic before entering RMAC play and pulled out two wins over Chadron, one of them in the regional pod, and a win over Western Colorado in regular conference play. The Green and Gold have played in seven five set matches going 5-2 this season in such matches. BHSU went 2-2 in five setters last year and are 44-42 since joining D2 in matches that go five sets. The Yellow Jackets win over Fort Lewis was the first time since 2021 that BHSU had won their RMAC opener. The Yellow Jackets win over Colorado Christian was the first time BHSU has beaten CCU in Lakewood. They were 0-10 in their previous matchups at CCU. 6-6 was the latest BHSU has been at .500 in the D2 era passing 2013 where BHSU was 5-5. The Yellow Jackets are ranked in the top eight in the RMAC in seven categories. They are ranked fourth in team assists (952), team aces (130), sixth in team digs (1,259), seventh in aces per set (1.53), hitting percentage (.199), team total attacks (3,047), and eighth in team kills (1,014). The Yellow Jackets are featuring a pretty new team this year. They are only bringing back three players who started 15 or more games last year and only have five that started more than ten. They graduated five key seniors for the team last year and are bringing in six freshman and one transfer. BHSU was projected to finish 14th in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 43 points, just ahead of Chadron State and one point behind Western Colorado. They are now tied for ninth in the RMAC at 4-6 with Western Colorado and CSU Pueblo. The Yellow Jackets top three hitters are all within range of each other. Carsyn Mettler is the top hitter for BHSU. Mettler, who has remained consistent now has a hitting percentage of .300 in 11 out of 22 games this year. She is leading the team in kills with 251, a team-high .273 hitting percentage, and has 30.0 total blocks. She has reached ten kills in 13 games this year, including 11 of the last 14. She had a .320 hitting percentage against #6 Washburn, and then a .455 hitting percentage versus UMary. She had 13 kills and two blocks versus Upper Iowa two weekends ago, but she had 28 kills in RMAC Weekend one with 15 versus Fort Lewis and 13 versus WCU. She had a .440 hitting percentage versus WCU. She had 18 kills this past weekend. She had 17 kills with a .400 hitting percentage and three blocks versus Chadron. She had 12 kills with a .333 hitting percentage against SDM. She had 13 kills versus Highlands. She had a career-high 23 kills versus Chadron with a .377 hitting percentage and two blocks. She had 13 kills and a .387 hitting percentage versus Regis. She had 17 kills and a .395 hitting percentage versus Chadron. The Yellow Jackets top three hitters are all within range of each other. Izzy Saiki has been one of the top of BHSU's trio this year. The senior from Thronton, Colo. is in the midst of a career year. She is second on the team and was the first one to 200 kills with 223 kills with a 2.93 kills per set mark. She is also leading the team in aces and is fourth in the RMAC with 29. She has 201 digs and 16 total blocks. She has 12 double-digit kill games including five of the last seven games. She had a career-high 21 kills versus MSU Denver. Saiki had her third double-double of the year with 18 kills and 15 digs versus CCU. The 15 digs were a career-high and the five aces during that game were also a career-high. She had another double-double versus Chadron with 10 kills and a season-high 17 digs. She had her career-high 21 kills versus MSUD and then had her sixth double-double of the season versus UCCS with 10 kills and 12 digs. This past weekend, she had 28 kills and 22 digs including 17 kills and 16 digs versus NMHU. Against Chadron, the second time, she had 13 kills and a team-high 25 digs. Zoie Husman has started all 22 games this year and after a fantastic tournament in Sioux Falls, she is third on the team with 211 kills and third with 28 aces. She is third with 201 digs. She also has 40 blocks, which is third on the team. Her best game of the year came versus Fort Lewis where she had her third double-double of her career with 21 kills and 13 digs. The 21 kills were career-high and her first time reaching 20 kills. She also had a career-high 24.5 points versus FLC as well as two total blocks. She had 17 kills versus UMary and a .667 hitting percentage, which was also a career high. She had a 17 kill, 13 dig game versus WNMU, with a career-high three total blocks. She had her second double of her season with a 13 kill, 15 dig game versus Upper Iowa, and tied her career high with three blocks. This past week, she had two double-doubles with 12 kills and 13 digs versus Chadron and 17 kills and 11 digs versus WCU. Elena Atkinson and Emma Kruger have had great seasons. After combining for 68 assists last weekend, they combined for 89 this weekend with Atkinson leading 46 assists to 43. Atkinson sits atop with 442 assists and has averaged 5.20 assists per set this season, while Kruger has 373 and has averaged 4.55. Atkinson's best game came against Chadron State, where she had 31 assists, which the second most in her entire career. She had a .470 set percentage, which was the second-best on the year, only behind MSUB, where she had a .514 set percentage. Atkinson is second on the team in aces with 29 and set a career-high for aces with seven versus Regis. Kruger's best game came against Fort Lewis, where she had a career-high 31 assists and 7 digs with an insane .508 set percentage. She just had a massive 30 assists, 22-dig game versus CCU with a .441 set percentage. When BHSU broke the record for attack percentage in a game in the D2 era against WCU, she had 25 assists with an impressive .568 set percentage. They are ranked ninth and 12th in the RMAC in total assists. Izabel Abril has been one of the other players to start all 22 games this year. Abril is sitting at 124 kills and is now second on the team with 50.0 total blocks. She had her Yellow Jacket career-high with 14 kills versus Fort Lewis, where she had a .417 attack percentage, and four total blocks, which is just her second time since joining BHSU reaching ten kills. She matched that mark a week later versus Christian, where she had 14 kills on a .458 hitting percentage and four total blocks. She had eight total blocks last weekend with five versus MSU Denver. Peyton McLeod has continued her solid career with 22 starts in 22 games this year. She is leading the team in blocks with 72.0 and has 115 kills. McLeod had a career-high 12 kills versus MSU Denver with four blocks and a .333 hitting percentage. She's had nine kills four times, but MSU Denver was her first double-digit kill game of her career. She had seven blocks versus Chadron. She had seven kills and two blocks versus Regis. She had a career-high in blocks in a game versus Western with 11 blocks Keira Thompson has been the top libero for BHSU this year. The junior from Lakewood, Colo. who is in her second season as a Yellow Jacket is currently leading the team with 251 digs, reaching the 100-dig mark against Upper Iowa and the 200-dig mark versus Chadron. She is averaging 3.14 digs per set and has ten aces as well. Thompson had her career-high of 29 digs versus Fort Lewis, which passed her previous career-high set in the game before versus Upper Iowa of 21. She averaged 5.8 digs per set. Last weekend, Thompson earned her first RMAC Defensive Player of the Week award for having 44 digs in seven sets averaging 6.29 digs per set and reaching 20 digs in each game including 24 digs versus CCU and 20 digs in only three sets versus CSUP. She had 22 digs in her start against Western Colorado this past weekend. Head coach Grayson DuBose enters his second season with the Yellow Jackets and has a BHSU record of 15-33 (6-18 RMAC) but has 14 years of head coaching experience at the D1 level prior to joining BHSU. He was head coach at Utah State for 14 years and has a 204-266 career record. He also earned two WAC Coach of the Year awards and one NCAA Division 1 Tournament appearance. DuBose picked uup his 200th career win against Fort Lewis in the five-set thriller. South Dakota Mines currently sits at 17-5 (7-3 RMAC) and have now won eight of their last ten games since playing BHSU. The Hardrockers are coming off a weekend where they also hosted the RMAC Power Pod and swept Regis and New Mexico Highlands in six sets. Those two wins made it six in a row for the Hardrockers as they took down Highlands, Adams, Regis, and Chadron prior to the Power Pod. The Hardrockers sole losses in RMAC play this year have been Colorado Christian, UCCS, and #RV MSU Denver. Their non-conference schedule was incredibly successful as SDM went 6-2 in non-conference play, besides that win over UCCS, they also beat Michigan Tech, Midwestern State, Lake Superior State, Minnesota Crookston and RMAC rival Chadron State. Their only losses in non-conference play were St. Edward's and Jamestown is who is now receiving votes. The Hardrockers are 5-1 on the road this year with that sole loss being Colorado Christian and were 5-5 on the road last year. The Hardrockers  are top 50 in the country in five stats so far this year. They are 22nd in kills per set (13.85), 33rd in hitting percentage (.247), 34th in assists per set (12.57), 39th in win-loss percentage (.773), and 42nd in blocks per set (2.13). They are also ranked top three in the RMAC in opposing hitting percentage (.171), team assists (1,056), team digs (1,348), and team kills (1,163). The Hardrockers were picked eighth in the RMAC Preseason Coaches' Poll with 107 points, just behind Fort Lewis and a bit ahead of Westminster. They were coming off a year where they went 10-16 (7-7 RMAC) and finished tied for eighth in the conference. They are currently fifth in the RMAC at 7-3. Cate Warren is the leader of the dominant hitting duo for SDM. She has 278 kills, which is fourth in the RMAC and 97th in the country, and has 3.39 kills per set and a .285 hitting percentage. The sophomore from Dallas, Texas has reached double-digit kills in 16 of the 22 games this year and 11 of her last 14. Her season-high was 21 kills versus Michigan Tech. She also has 23 total blocks with a block in each of the last ten games. She was named RMAC Offensive Player of the Week after week three for having 33 kills and over a .400 hitting percentage versus WCU and FLC. Last weekend, she had 26 total kills with 17 versus Regis and a .361 hitting percentage. Lexi Glendenning, the sophomore who earned First Team All-RMAC as a freshman last year, is back and has been very good for the Hardrockers. Glendenning is sitting at 256 kills. She is averaging 3.12 kills per set and has a .275 hitting percentage. She also has 36 total blocks. After a rougher start to the year, Glendenning was on a role reached double digit kills in nine of ten games, but since, has slowed down. She hasn’t reached 15 kills in a game since September 19 and has had three games under ten. This past weekend she had 19 kills in six sets with 10 kills and a .526 hitting percentage versus Highlands. Maria Bouman, the Spearfish native, is having a great year as a sophomore. The former Spartan is leading the team in blocks and is sixth in the RMAC with 91. She's also third in the RMAC and 36th in the country in hitting percentage at .371 and is 26th in the country and leading the RMAC in service aces with 45. She's averaging 1.08 blocks per set and has had three or more blocks in 17 of 22 games, including each of the last eight games. She's had a career-high seven blocks three times this year versus Lake Superior State, Western Colorado, and Adams State. She has reached double-digit kills six times this year with a season-high 14 kills versus Midwestern State. She's coming off a weekend, where she had 15 kills and nine blocks with six blocks versus Highlands. She had a career-high six aces versus BHSU and also had five aces versus Adams. She has an ace in every game and has had multiple in four of the last five. The top setter for the Hardrockers is Emily Henderson, who is fifth in the RMAC in total assists (529). She's sixth in the RMAC in assists per set (6.37). The freshman from Cedar Rapids, Iowa has over 20 assists in 14 of 22 games and six of the last nine. She had a career-high 38 assists versus CSU Pueblo. This past weekend, she had 40 assists and 15 digs. This included a 24 assist, 11-dig double-double versus Regis. Head Coach Lauren Prochazka is in her ninth season with the Hardrockers. The 2024 RMAC Coach of the Year has a 108-119 record with SDM since taking  over that included six ten-win seasons and five in a row from 2021-2025. She is almost about to make it six straight. She's had two winning seasons in her career including an 18-9 record in 2024. Prior to joining the Hardrockers, she was the head coach at D3 Minnesota Morris and now has a career 150-142 record. SERIES HISTORY Since joining D2, BHSU holds the 17-16 series lead over the Hardrockers. From 2016-2021, BHSU won ten straight, but have now lost each of the past six matchups, with their last win coming in a neutral site matchup in Chadron in 2023. Last year, the Yellow Jackets met twice with the Hardrockers with both matchups in Rapid City. Despite a really good showing in the opening match, BHSU fell 3-1 to SDM and then fell 3-0 later in the year. Earlier this season, BHSU met with the Hardrockers in Rapid City and fell 3-1 in the RMAC Regional Pod. The Yellow Jackets took the second set of the match, but were unable to grab another as Mettler had 12 kills and Husman had 10 with an ace and four blocks.