RAPID CITY - The front wall of Dakota State University blocked ball after ball and proved to be too much to handle as it held South Dakota School of Mines to a 10 percent kill rate on Saturday. That led to a convincing 3-1 loss for Mines in a Dakota Athletic Conference match.

Ashley Kauffman, Katherine Hanson and Stephanie Carpio had 28 of SDSM&T's 44 kills, but it was to no avail as their squad fell 22-25, 25-18, 25-22, 25-19 to the Lady Trojans of Dakota State.

"It was a tough loss," said Mines' Stephanie Carpio who had eight kills and four digs. "I felt that we came out strong and played as hard as we could, but had a few balls that didn't go our way-and they had some great blocks."

The Hardrockers got off to a great start by winning the first game of the match behind a monster spike by Amanda Cammack that gave them a four point lead - a lead they never relinquished.

Carpio began the second game with a surge as she had three kills in the team's first seven points attempting to catapult the Hardrockers off to a quick 2-0 lead. However, after that run, the Lady Trojans countered with runs of their own. They took an eight-point lead late in the game and would go on to win the second game which would swing momentum Dakota State's way.

In the final three games, Mines was dominated by Dakota State's front three of Ashley Schulte, Rachael Jensen and Margie Anthony who had 16, 15 and 11 kills, respectively.

"I think we beat a really good Tech team today. We couldn't allow for them to get runs on us like they did in the first matchup, and we were able to sustain their runs by countering with our own runs," Dakota State head coach Cynthia Henning said.

"We play really good on Friday night no matter what the competition is for whatever reason, but on Saturdays this year we are just not showing up," Hardrocker head coach Beth Honaker said. "They blocked tremendously tonight. When we went there (Dakota State) we played flawlessly and we ran the same set tonight as we ran there, they just blocked it.

"Dakota State is known for their defense and we knew it was coming, but we thought it was going to be coming more from the back row not the front. You have to give them credit because they came to play and earned every point. We didn't give them anything-they earned it."

South Dakota Mines (12-14 overall) plays Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. at Black Hills State University in the regular season finale.

BHSU 3, MAYVILLE STATE 1: Black Hills State capped off the weekend with another Dakota Athletic Conference win on Saturday. The Yellow Jackets topped Mayville State 25-18,

25-14, 21-25, 25-20.

Kristin Engle led the Yellow Jacket attack with 18 kills. Kayla Haines had 12 kills.

Mandy Brumfield set the tempo for the offense with 50 kill assists.

Kristin Engle had four assisted blocks and one solo block. Kalin Engle added four assisted blocks.

Annie Grim had 18 digs and Carina Sweet had 16.

Black Hills State (20-6 overall, 12-1 DAC) hosts DAC rival South Dakota School of Mines on Wednesday at 7 p.m.