Alaina Wolff and the University of South Dakota volleyball team is headed to Omaha for a second straight week. The Jackson County Central graduate is a 5-foot-6 junior defensive specialist for USD.
The Coyotes were assigned to the Creighton Region for the NCAA tournament and will play fifth-seeded Houston in a first-round match at 3:30 p.m. Friday at D.J. Sokol Arena.
Friday’s other opening-round match has Creighton facing Auburn at 6:30 p.m. The winners meet at 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
This past weekend in Omaha, top-seeded South Dakota won the Summit League tournament for the third straight year and fourth time in five seasons.
On Friday Wolff had six digs and was 16-for-18 serving with one ace in a 3-0 win over fourth-seeded Denver in the semifinals.
Then on Saturday she posted six digs, was 13-13 serving with four aces and had one set assist in a 3-0 win over second-seeded and tournament host Omaha in the championship match.
Houston (28-3) is in the NCAA tourney for the first time since 2000. The Cougars have two players on its roster with ties to Minnesota.
Anna Wolf is a 6-4 sophomore middle blocker from River Falls, Wis. who played for the Gophers as a freshman.
Also, Barakat Rahmon is a 6-1 redshirt freshman who played high school volleyball at Tartan.
On the season, Wolff has played in all 32 matches and 121 out of 123 sets for the Coyotes, who have a record of 29-3. One of those losses was to Louisville, which is the number two overall seed for the NCAA tournament. The others were to North Dakota State.
She has 244 digs (2.02 per set) and is 362-403 serving for an .898 percentage and is second on the team in ace serves with 32.
This is the third time in four NCAA appearances that USD has been sent to a regional at Creighton. The Coyotes lost to the Bluejays in 2018 and to Missouri in 2020.
South Dakota lost at Minnesota in the first round last year.