RAPID CITY - The South Dakota School of Mines volleyball team came through with a big Dakota Athletic Conference win Friday night defeating Jamestown College, 3-1, at Goodell Gymnasium.

By defeating the Jimmies, the Hardrockers improved their chances of moving up in the conference standings from fourth to third. The win gave Mines an identical conference record with the Lady Jimmies at 7-4 and a tie for third place. Today's matches will tell the tale as Jamestown moves on to face the DAC's No. 2 team, Black Hills State, while the Hardrockers take on the conference's bottom team in the Dakota State Trojans.

"It's a huge win for us," said Hardrocker head coach Beth Honaker. "We did our job as far as getting the win over Jamestown. Now we have to cheer for BH. If they win (today) and we win (today) then we have third place by ourselves."

Mines defeated Jamestown, 30-22, 28-30, 31-29, 30-24.

The Hardrockers came out very strong in the first game to establish a lead early and rode the momentum for the win. And even though they dropped Game 2, they were still able to narrow the deficit late in the game, stayed competitive but ran out of points.

"That was one of our best starts in a long time," Honaker said. "We knew if we got out to a quick start we would have a good chance to win."

The Hardrockers stalled a little going into the third game as the Jimmies again mounted a sizable advantage midway through the game. Mines again rallied back and overtook Jamestown down the stretch to win Game 3. That momentum carried over to the final frame where the Hardrockers were too much to contend with.

"It's hard to play on the road," Honaker said of Jamestown having to travel here to play. "When anybody has to travel it tough, especially coming from North Dakota."

Individually, the Hardrockers saw a lot of great efforts, from the starters as well as the reserve players.

Rapid City senior Jennie Malone paced the team with 16 kills and was 45-of-51 on the attack while junior Ashley Kauffman and sophomore Katherine Hanson both added 15 kills on the night. Kauffman was 47-of-58 on the attack and Hanson went 47-of-52. Mines junior libero, who earned this week's DAC and Region III Libero honors, ended Friday's match with 43 digs and setter Tessa Howe looked strong with 42 assists in the bout.

The Jimmies saw a strong showing from Megan Dooley who was 38-of-40 on the attack with 15 kills while teammate Darci Purath had 12 kills and made good on 50-of-51 attacks.

Even the Hardrockers bench saw some quality minutes with Honaker giving special recognition to freshman Danielle Walraven, junior Amanda Cammack and junior Renae Keppen. Walraven had an impressive night serving the ball making good on all 20-of-20 attempts with an ace while Cammack and Keppen contributed strongly at the net.

"Dani's been serving well in practice all week and both Renae and Amanda contributed a lot," Honaker said.

"It's lucky for us that we have a bench that can come in and pick up the slack."

The win gives the 'Rockers a 19-4 overall record on the season and tonight's match is slated for 7 p.m.

The regular season finished up next weekend as Mines welcomes the Dickinson State Blue Hawks, who are undefeated in conference play and Minot State.