SPEARFISH, S.D.- The Black Hills State Yellow Jackets (9-14 (4-7 RMAC)) are finishing off their home schedule as they host #22 Colorado School of Mines Orediggers (19-3 (8-2 RMAC)) for their A2 Arena finale as they will also be celebrating senior night with four seniors being honored in Mianna Cardenas, Izabel Abril, Izzy Saiki, and Keira Thompson. BHSU is now sitting on the outside looking in of the RMAC playoffs after the close loss to SD Mines. Purchase CSM Tickets Here Click to watch on the RMAC Network Click to view live stats on StatBroadcast KNOW BEFORE YOU GO BLACK HILLS STATE STORYLINES #22 COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES STORYLINES Date/Time/Location: October 30, 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 State is now 9-14 (4-7 RMAC) 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 then lost to South Dakota Mines in the Black Hills Brawl Rivalry Series match 3-1 as they took the first set, had a late lead in the second before losing sets two through four to fall in the match. They now have an uphill battle to make the RMAC tournament. 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 (990), team aces (134), sixth in team digs (1,315), seventh in aces per set (1.5), hitting percentage (.194), team total attacks (3,169), and eighth in team kills (1,053). 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 tenth in the RMAC at 4-7 with 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 12 out of 23 games this year. She is leading the team in kills with 266, a team-high .276 hitting percentage, and has 31.0 total blocks. She has reached ten kills in 14 games this year, including 12 of the last 15. 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. On Tuesday, she had 15 kills with a .333 hitting percentage. 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 235 kills with a 2.94 kills per set mark. She is also leading the team in aces and is fourth in the RMAC with 31. She has 218 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. The third time versus Chadron, she had 12 kills and 17 digs. Zoie Husman has started all 23 games this year and after a fantastic tournament in Sioux Falls, she is third on the team with 216 kills and third with 28 aces. She is third with 216 digs. She also has 42 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 23 games this year. Abril is sitting at 130 kills and is now second on the team with 51.0 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 23 starts in 23 games this year. She is leading the team in blocks with 76.0 and has 119 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 263 digs, reaching the 100-dig mark against Upper Iowa and the 200-dig mark versus Chadron. She is averaging 3.13 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 15-34 (6-19 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 204-267 career record. He also earned two WAC Coach of the Year awards and one NCAA Division 1 Tournament appearance. DuBose picked up his 200th career win against Fort Lewis in the five-set thriller. Colorado School of Mines currently sits at 19-3 and 8-2 in the RMAC. They are officially in the top-25 poll after receiving votes for numerous weeks as they sit at #22. The Orediggers are on a heater unlike anything I’ve seen before. They have won 12 straight games and have not lost a set in any of those 12 games, the last time CSM lost a set was versus MSU Denver on September 12. They are coming off two wins each over Westminster and Colorado Mesa. Their hot run started with wins over Highlands and Adams and has included sweeps of #24 MSU Denver, CSU Pueblo, Fort Lewis and two sweeps of Mesa and Westminster. Their non-conference schedule was incredibly successful as CSM went 7-1 as they swept their home tournament with wins over Cal Poly Humboldt, Cal State Dominguez Hills, Flagler, and Rockhurst. They then went to Hayward, California and played in the Cal State East Bay Tournament where they took three of four with five set wins over San Francisco State and Northern Michigan, with their sole loss being a five-set loss to the home team Cal State East Bay. The Orediggers are 5-2 on the road this year so far. They have losses to Cal State East Bay and #18 MSU Denver, but do have wins over Westminster, Mesa, and Christian. Last year, CSM was 6-3 on the road. The Orediggers are top 30 in the country in five stats. They are third in blocks per set (2.79), ninth in hitting percentage (.284), 13th in total blocks (209.0), 15th in win/loss percentage (.864), and 27th in kills per set (13.71). They are also leading the RMAC in opponent hitting percentage (.153), second in the RMAC in assists per set (12.51), and third in aces per set (1.68). The Orediggers were picked in a tie for third in the RMAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll with MSU Denver. They garnered 165 points with two first place votes, three second place votes, and four third place votes. They were picked just behind Colorado Mesa and just ahead of CSU Pueblo. They currently sit in a three-way tie for second with Mesa and UCCS at 8-2. Colorado School of Mines is led by one of the best players in the country Jenna McLaughlin. The middle blocker from Zanesville, Ohio is having an impressive year, leading their team in kills and blocks. McLaughlin, who earned First Team All-RMAC last year, is currently ranked second in the country in blocks per set (1.49), ninth in the country in total blocks (112.0), 20th in the country in hitting percentage (.392), and 39th in the country in points per set (4.15). McLaughlin has been named RMAC Defensive Player of the Week four times this year including the opening week, where she had 20 total blocks in four games, week six where she had 10 total blocks versus Christian and Pueblo, week seven, where she had 12 total blocks versus Western and Fort Lewis, and this last week, where she had 13 total blocks versus Mesa and Westminster. She also has one offensive player of the week, where she had 22 total kills versus Westminster and Mesa with over a .500 hitting percentage in both games. She had double-digit kills in the first eight games of the season, but has only reached that number five times since including three of last four. She also ahs had three or more blocks in 20 of 22 games. This past weekend, she had 21 kills with a .643 hitting percentage versus Westminster and 13 total blocks. Kaiya Gilbert is also one of the top players in the country and is the top setter in the RMAC as a freshman. Gilbert, a Castle Rock, Colorado native, has 756 assists this year, which is 58th in the country and her 10.08 assists per set is 28th in the country. Gilbert has been named RMAC Setter of the Week six times including five of the past six weeks. She’s only had four games under 30 assists this year and has reached 40 assists in four games. She had a career-high 50 assists versus Cal State East Bay. This past weekend, she had 63 assists in six sets and also added 15 digs. Francesca Nuzzo, a senior from Rome, Italy, has been the top libero for the Orediggers this year. Nuzzo currently sits at 323 digs and 4.31 digs per set. She also leads the team with 28 aces. Nuzzo has double-digit digs in 18 of 22 games. She also has one RMAC Defensive Player of the Week two weeks ago when she had 46 digs in two matches versus Westminster and Mesa. This past week, she only had 18 digs in two games, but had four aces in the game versus Westminster. Head Coach Jamie Magalei is in her 19th season as head coach at CSM. Since taking over the program in 2008, Magalei has a career coaching record of 403-150 (.729). She is ranked 33rd among active head coaches in wins, and of qualified active coaches, she is ranked 18th in win percentage. Magalei has only had one losing season in 19 years and has reached 20 wins in 12 of the 19 seasons. SERIES HISTORY Since joining D2, BHSU currently has only beaten CSM one time in 18 matches. The sole win versus the Orediggers was in 2013 when BHSU swept them. BHSU has lost 14 straight to Mines. The last time BHSU faced them was in Golden last November. BHSU fell to Mines 0-3, but only lost the third set 25-21. Emily Freeland had tow aces and Ellie Thomas had 11 digs.