The South Dakota Mines volleyball team might have surprised the rest of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference by hosting and winning a tournament quarterfinal match during the 2023 season.
But the Hardrockers were not surprised; they expected to be there.
They had 10 newcomers on the roster, mostly freshmen, combined with several sophomores, one senior and a couple of junior transfers that had a vision of excellence going back to the previous couple of seasons. It took an improved team culture and some young talent to finish their best season ever as a Division II program.
The Hardrockers’ 18-10 overall record in 2023 was their first winning season since 2014 and first as a member of the RMAC. The ‘Rockers finished fourth in the conference at 10-4, also their best finish ever.
In the postseason, Mines hosted a first-ever RMAC playoff match in a quarterfinal when they earned their first tournament win, stopping CSU Pueblo 3-2 (25-23, 13-25, 32-30, 15-25 and 15-12) in front of a near sell-out crowd that stormed the court after match point. The Hardrockers would go on to fall to no. 1 seed MSU Denver 3-0 in Denver in the tournament semifinals.
“We know where we came from and where we are now and it feels good, but we try not to get lost in that because we know what is ahead of us,” said Hardrocker head coach Lauren Prochazka. “But they (young players) only know what they know. Their mindset now is, ‘I want way more than this, there has to be more than this.’”
Since the season ended, Prochazka has watched the Pueblo match several times because she was so locked into volleyball that everything around her was irrelevant.
“To watch it again and see the crowd size, see the reactions, hear the noise … I think our team was the same way,” she said. “We weren’t going to be any different than we had been the whole season.”
Freshman defensive specialist Josey Wickersham said the energy in the gym was something that she had never experienced, even at the high school state tournament while playing for Brandon Valley.
“Our gym isn’t very big, but they filled it, and everyone had so much energy. Our student section was so incredible. Really big shout out to them because they came in and gave us a lot of love and support,” she said. “When I am actively playing, especially when I’m serving, I can’t hear anything. There is nothing that can distract my focus from that one moment. As soon as the point is over you can hear the celebration, the cheering, the energy from the gym.”
The student section rushing the court after the match point goes back to the commitment they have with the student body. “They show up for us – our basketball teams, football team, soccer team, golf teams. They have always been there, and they are always going to cheer us on. They are a part of us,” Prochazka said.