VERMILLION, S.D. - The Western Illinois volleyball team filled up the stat sheet Sunday but could not keep up offensively with South Dakota in a 3-1 loss (25-27, 26-24, 21-25, 22-25) to the Coyotes inside the DakotaDome. The loss drops the Fighting Leathernecks to 9-8 overall and 2-5 in Summit League play.

Western Illinois set four-set season highs in kills (58), attempts (198) and assists (54) but was much less efficient than South Dakota (9-8, 4-2 Summit League), who recorded a .216 attack percentage (65k-21e-204ta). The Fighting Leathernecks were held to a .157 attack percentage and committed six more hitting errors than the Coyotes.

The Fighting Leatherneck defense compiled 101 digs, which is the second most this season behind the 102 collected against Oakland (Sept. 19). Junior Bridget Murphy tied her career-high with 34 digs and moved past the 1,000 career dig mark in the process. Murphy becomes just the 11th player in program history to reach the milestone and vaulted past Hall of Famer Diane Ellefritz (1987-91) into tenth all-time with 1,019 career digs.

Murphy now owns six consecutive 20-plus dig performances and nine overall this season. She entered the weekend ranked first in The Summit League and 10th in the nation with 5.82 digs per set.  

Freshmen Molly Murphy (19 digs), Ann Miller (13 digs) and Bailey Kaloupek (11 digs) were all busy in the back row. Molly Murphy also collected four more service aces, which moves her Summit League-leading total to 30 this season.

Junior Katie Hosteng came off the bench to set a Western Illinois season-high with 17 kills on 46 attempts (.304 attack percentage). Hosteng put down five kills on just nine attempts in the second set victory, which featured six lead changes.

Freshman Samantha Fournier put down 12 kills and also collected three block assists. Meanwhile senior Cait Egan finished with 11 kills on 34 attempts (.235 attack percentage). Egan also collected six total blocks to move past Patty Melinauskas (2003-06) and Erin Frick (2006-09) into fifth place all-time in program history with 322 career blocks.

Sophomore Sarah Fetter set a season-high with 50 assists and also collected her fourth double-double with 11 digs. Fetter compiled 16 assists and five digs in the high-scoring first set. The last time a Leatherneck dished out 50 or more assists was Aug. 28, 2010 when Heather Smith had 64 against USC-Upstate.

Western Illinois returns to action Saturday (Oct. 8) when the Fighting Leathernecks play host to IUPUI inside Brophy Hall. First serve is set for 7 p.m. with the Jaguars, who swept UMKC Sunday to improve to 8-10 overall and 3-4 in conference play.