By Rich Winter

605 Sports

Something special is brewing in Murdo, South Dakota. 

While the normal contenders, Warner, Chester Area, Burke and Northwestern sit atop the Class B volleyball poll, Jones County reeled off 27 consecutive wins to start its season and is just outside the top-five of the Class B poll as region play begins next week. 

“This is a group of spectacular athletes,” Shelly Schweigert, Jones County coach said. “This year they just found their niche and are playing like a team that knows how to win.” 

A group of six seniors, many of whom have been part of the varsity since their eighth-grade year, endured some tough times throughout their careers. In 2018, Jones County finished the year with a 2-24 record. 

Senior Mallory Valburg has been a fixture on the Coyote volleyball team for the past five seasons and recalls some difficult moments early in her career. 

“My eighth grade year was tough,” Valburg said. “We had limited numbers and played with older kids and just tried to have a positive attitude in practice and go into games giving it everything we had.” 

The Coyotes won six matches in 2019, eight matches in 2020 and 17 in 2021 as coach Schweigert took over the program last season.  

The girls finished the regular season with a 28-1 record with their only loss coming to Class A Belle Fouche (28-7).

“These girls always had raw talent and just had to refine their skills,” Schweigert said. “They’ve been building their confidence and they now know where to be on the floor at all times.” 

Valburg broke the Jones County record for kills in a season (291). While her kills are down this season (278) the rest of the Jones County hitters have upped their game. 

Jadyn Jensen has 188 kills while fellow seniors Kendal Kinsley (150) and Emma Hunt (120) provide a diversified attack for the Coyotes. 

“We have six strong hitters and we can all go up and put them down,” Valburg said. “Jayden and Kendal are picking it up more and we have added more quick attacks to our offense.” 

Orchestrating that offense is senior Peyton Rankin. The 5-foot-7 setter is Jones County’s all-time leader in set assists with 1,609. She set the single-season set assists record in 2021 (626) and entered region play with 611 set assists this season. 

Toss in 5-foot-11 senior, middle-blocker Jolie Dugan and the Coyotes have six seniors that have kept the small town of Murdo buzzing since early in their elementary careers. 

“We’ve been together since the first day of Kindergarten,” Valburg said. “We started playing basketball in third grade and have a high level of respect for one another.” 

Jones County is having an incredible year from the service line. The Coyotes have racked up 266 ace serves with Jensen (61) and Valburg (57) leading the way. 

After winning its first 27 matches Jones County felt the pangs of defeat to Belle Fourche in the finals of the Douglas tournament. Schweigert felt like the loss to Belle Fourche was good for the squad.

“Our goal this season was never to go undefeated, only to be consistent,” Schweigert said. “To meet Belle Fourche was a really good challenge foscr them and going into region play undefeated can be a scary scenario.” 

Valburg said the loss to Belle Fourche was an eye opener. 

“It definitely woke us up and helped us refocus and see where we are lacking,” she said. That brought us back to earth and made us realize we aren’t untouchable so we just have to come out with bigger blocks and swing harder.” 

The Coyotes haven’t ventured east to tangle with some of the Class B powers but Schweigert feels like the Western Great Plains Conference has her team ready for postseason play. 

“When you play Philip three times and Kadoka four times and New Underwood those are all good teams,” she said. “The mental aspect of playing good competition is tougher than playing a new team every night.” 

While the gym at Jones County hasn’t always been full for volleyball the past two seasons have been different as a supportive community has come out to support their girls. 

“This community has kinda raised this bunch of girls,” Schweigert said. “They’ve been following them since third grade so our entire community is behind them.” 

Jones County opens region play Tuesday Nov. 1 against the winner of Monday’s match between Crazy Horse and Oelrichs.