RAPID CITY - As the St. Thomas More girls first came onto their home court for Tuesday night's volleyball game with Hot Springs they were greeted by Van Halen's classic hit "Jump." The Cavaliers must have been listening as they quickly wasted no time in jumping all over the Bison, early and often, in posting a Black Hills Conference three-set sweep, 25-20, 25-17, 25-19.

Ironically, the St. Thomas More victory clinched the BHC conference championship for Douglas.

The dominating win was sweet revenge for the Cavaliers, who were swept in similar fashion in Hot Springs on Sept. 23, a game well remembered by Cavalier head coach Brandon Kandolin.

"After we faced them the first time, we went on a little bit of a losing streak so we worked on some fundamental things to get ourselves back on track," he said. "I think the whole key tonight was that we were able to pass well and when that happens we have girls who can hit the ball."

In each game, St. Thomas More broke out quickly to early leads from which the Bison could never quite recover. Often those leads were built around excellent back court passing to setter Kelsey Behaert, who converted the passes into perfect sets for the powerful hits by Erin Duffy (nine kills), Katy Freidel (11 kills), Theresa Poloncic (10 kills) and Alexa White (five kills).

Time and again when Hot Springs attempted to climb back into the match, Duffy came up big with a spike to close out a rally and regain momentum for the Cavaliers.

"We really have to take advantage of Erin when she is in the front," said coach Kandolin. "She can hit over most people and she the power to dominate. She has worked hard to improve, particularly her footwork, and it's really paying off."

"Kelsey and I have been working on our timing," said Duffy. "Trying not to hit the ball down the middle all the time where they can put a hand up and block it. Tonight we did it well for us. This was really a big game for us since one of our losses was to them and we didn't want to lose again."

Behaert attributed her setting to the passes of her teammates.

"I had awesome passes all night and our hitters were amazing so it was just a lot of fun tonight," she said. "We came out with a lot of intensity because we wanted this win so badly, and did what we needed to do to get the job done."

Hot Springs coach Stacie Collins was not pleased with the play of her team.

"St. Thomas More came ready to play tonight, and we didn't. We just didn't perform well for whatever reason," she said. "They were aggressive and we were content to sit back and just bump the ball over the net."

Outside hitter Carlie Weiss led Hot Springs in kills with eight and she also contributed 12 digs, a category led by cousin Randi Weiss with 13.

Both teams are in action Friday night with St. Thomas More (23-6 overall, 10-3 Black Hills Conference) hosting Newell and Hot Springs (19-7, 11-2) traveling to Belle Fourche.