Huskies Start Fast, Sweep Past Jackrabbits

Friday, September 18

Sioux Falls, S.D.

2:00 PM

University of Washington

8-0,0-0Big Ten

South Dakota State

4-6,0-0Summit League

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Washington	25	25	25	3
South Dakota St.	11	21	16	0

September 18, 2026 | Volleyball

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By: UW Athletic Communications

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – The Huskies came storming out of the gate in their first trip to the Sanford Pentagon, winning the first 11 points in a row against Summit League Champion South Dakota State and never trailing in a 25-11, 25-21, 25-16 sweep. UW hit a season-best .386.

Simona Mateska opened the match with a kill on the first swing, then went back and served an ace that started a serving run that wouldn't end until it was 11-0 Dawgs and Mateska finally served one long. That could have led the Dawgs to take their foot off the gas, but UW would have quick starts in all sets and put the Jackrabbits away. The main challenge came when SDSU tied up set two at 18-all, but a 3-0 Husky run put them back in front to stay.

Andrea Fabikovicová set the Dawgs to a .386 mark, their first time over .300 this season, and UW held SDSU to a .129 percentage. The Huskies had a 45 to 28 edge in kills, and led in aces (7-2) and digs (42-23) with the Jackrabbits leading in blocks (8.0 to 6.0).

Mateska was stellar with nine kills on 15 swings and just one error to hit .533 with two ace and nine digs. Julia Hunt was even more efficient, hitting .583 with eight kills on 12 swings, and a team-high five blocks. First-year Kylie Kleckner led all players with 11 kills, hitting .259, plus eight digs and one block.

More contributions came from Maija Howse, who had seven kills and three blocks. Katy Wessels had four kills on five swings to hit .600 with one block, Kaitlyn Nguyen was part of some long scoring runs as she had three aces and eight digs, and Addy Azavedo had five digs and ended set two with an ace.

First-year middle blocker Hayden Conner saw her first extended action in set three, and she got her first career kill midway through the set, then added two more down the stretch to finish with three on five swings.

Up Next: UW has one more match in Sioux Falls and one more in non-conference play coming up tomorrow against the South Dakota Coyotes at 10 a.m. Pacific time

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