Brand-new bleachers and giant Powercat banner? Check. Half a team new to collegiate play? Check. Winning the first home match to a sold-out audience? Check. What more could the volleyball team want? Ostensibly, consistency.

"Early, we were bad," head coach Suzie Fritz said. "It was terribly inconsistent, terribly undisciplined, and that's the challenge that I pose to our team, is ‘can we overcome our inexperience by being a more disciplined volleyball team?'"

Regardless of the balance, K-State (1-3) ousted the University of South Dakota (2-3) in four games. The match began with a heated trade-off of points between the two teams. Neither took much of a lead for most of game one, until K-State nabbed four straight to take a narrow advantage. South Dakota rallied back from its deficit to close out its only win with an impressive defensive performance. By game two, the Wildcats drove hard for some huge hits and hair-width digs, but they gave up too much in terms of errors and momentum. A late run from the Coyotes cooled down K-State, but it still managed to grab that last point for 25-19 victory.

Following intermission, K-State returned as a new team. Unfortunately, so had South Dakota. The latter stuck out some nice blocks to ice the front-row, but the former would not relinquish the long rallies, sliding into a 2-1 lead. The Wildcats powered through the first five points with senior JuliAnne Chisholm attacking from the back row. Starting at 13-8, the Cats put up a nice string from out of nowhere, but South Dakota quickly followed suit. Not wanting to go home early, the Coyotes turned on some heat, but K-State handled the heat, jamming down swing after swing to win the match 25-19.

It was a heyday for freshman middle blocker Kaitlynn Pelger. In only her fourth match of her collegiate career, Pelger recorded a match-high 15 kills with an even more impressive .364 hitting percentage. It was the addition of her four block assists and two aces that really hit Fritz's button.

"She's not just attacking well; she's also blocking well and handling little plays at the net," Fritz said. "She's also right now one of our most productive servers. In terms of the amount of things she's doing well, I think she's exceeding my expectations."

Pelger would not let the numbers go to her head.

"Caitlyn Donahue set me perfect every time," Pelger said. "It was great tonight, so I'm going to put a lot of points onto her."

Senior outside hitter JuliAnne Chisholm recorded 11 kills in one half of her double-double, but even more significant was her career-high 15 digs, a number only surpassed by senior libero Lauren Mathewson. One more true freshman - outside hitter Courtney Cook - combined with sophomore middle blocker Alex Muff and sophomore opposite hitter Kathleen Ludwig for near-double digits. They also posted high hitting percentages, including Ludwig's mark of .438.

The home team came out with three straight points, owed largely to a trio of digs from Chisholm and two brick walls. A botched attack downshifted the pace some, with the teams trading points until South Dakota brought the game to a tie. South Dakota then took a one-point lead, but K-State grabbed a long rally to set off a four-point run to 17-15. Not to be outdone, South Dakota set up another string for a 22-21 lead, then repeated the effort to win the game, 25-22, on a K-State blocking error.

Another four-point run notched K-State as favored to take its first game in game two, and they drove to game point after a Coyote net violation. However, South Dakota did not seem ready to call it quits; down 13-24, it grabbed six straight points, but Donahue and redshirt freshman Kacia Turner teamed up for a tight quick hit to claim game two, 25-19.

Something clicked for K-State in game three, as Mathewson netted her team a service ace and three more points. After a long rotation, in which Muff hit back-to-back fireballs and Donahue had a pair of saves, K-State broke a timeout icing attempt from South Dakota to string together points for a 25-18 win.

The Wildcats returned to the court for the final game with five players hitting at least .250. After a quick five-point run by K-State, the match settled into its norm of trade-off play. At the top of the second rotation, both teams strung together decent runs, with K-State keeping its lead at 15-11. A controversial call added one for South Dakota, but another back-and-forth run edged the Wildcats closer to their first victory. At match point, a save from freshman Tristan McCarty popped the ball back up in friendly territory, eventually falling in favor of K-State, closing the match at 25-19.

"I thought it took us a little long to get going," Chisholm said, "but I thought we were great at the end. It was so nice to get a first win. We got a long ways to go, and we got to work to get there, but we're going to do it."