We will be tracking the most special, the rarest and most interesting sports moments across South Dakota each month. Included are such events for November and a couple we missed earlier. Email us at dave@sdsportscene.com if you think we missed something or if you have an event you would like us to consider for this feature:
Oct. 29: Two sisters born in Mitchell ended up playing their one and only volleyball match against each other in Mitchell. Jadie and Ally DeLange ended up going to high school in Colorado, but now Jadie is a senior volleyball player at Dakota Wesleyan and Ally is a sophomore at Mount Marty, where she switched sports this from fall from basketball to volleyball. Host DWU defeated Mount Marty 3-0.
Oct. 29-31: Aberdeen curlers Danny Wolfgram, Alec Wolfgram, John Peterson and John Hilton pulled off a rare feat at the 1,000 Lakes/Halloween Bonspiel in Grand Rapids, MN. They scored a perfect eight points in one end with all eight of one team’s stones ending on the target and closer than any of the eight stones throw by the opposition. Known as eight-ender, it has never been accomplished in the Olympics or the U.S. Championships and only once in the World Championships.
Nov. 3: The South Dakota High School Activities Association sanctioned high school varsity softball starting in 2022-23.
Nov. 4: Aberdeen Christian defeated defending state champion Northwestern in volleyball for the first time in school history to advance to the SoDak 16 (where the Knights would advance to their first state tournament).
Nov. 4: The Hill City volleyball team faced and defeated Belle Fourche three times during the 2021 season on Sept. 4, Oct. 26 and Nov. 4 — each time with a different coach. The first time their coach was Lindsy Wathen (who later resigned), then Hill City athletic director Wade Ginsbach (Northern State graduate and former Wolves’ football player) served as interim coach before Renae Schneider stepped in to finish out the season and help Hill City get to the state tournament.
Nov. 5: It was a semifinal football night like no other in South Dakota filled with thrilling games:

Class 9B: Dell Rapid St. Mary trailed by 10 points with 10 minutes left, but got TDs from Nic Gasper and Gariel Lindeman (23 run with 1:21 left) to defeat Avon 32-30. DRSM then used a goal-line stance, stopping Avon at the one-yard line on the last play of the game. Grant Luikens threw TD passes of 54 and 65 yards and rushed for a TD to lead Potter County past Faulkton 22-12.

9A: Herreid/Selby Area rallied from a 14-0 halftime deficit to beat De Smet 16-14. HSA got both its TDs and conversions from Brenden Begeman, who also had a key fourth-quarter fumble recovery to stop a De Smet drive. Howard nipped Wall 21-17 after trailing 17-14 at halftime.

9AA: Tage Ortman hooked up with his brother, Will Ortman, for a 20-yard TD with 1:27 left to give Canistota/Freeman a 24-20 win over Parkston. Platte-Geddes trailed Timber Lake 14-0 in the second quarter, but rallied to take a 23-20 win. The winning score came on a 15-yard TD pass from Grayson Hanson to Joey Foxley with 2:18 left. Platte-Geddes also got key late-game takeaways from Chase Varilek (fumble recovery) and Dawson Hoffman (interception).

11B: Kaden Klumb threw a 30-yard TD to Sutton Arend with 1:48 left, and moments later, Jay Storm’s interception clinched Bridgewater-Emery/Ethan’s 28-21 win over Beresford. BEE faced Winner (52-14 semifinal win over Elk Point-Jefferson) for the 11B title for the third year in a row.
11A: Madison outscored Dell Rapids 18-14 in the final quarter to outlast the Quarriers 38-28. Kaden Krause had a hand in three TDs to lead Milbank over Vermillion 24-0.

11AA: Pierre rallied from a 21-7 deficit to defeat Aberdeen Central 28-21, scoring the final TD with five minutes left. Tea Area had a 35-7 lead with 16 minutes left in the game, but had to make a goal- line stand on the final play of the game to prevent Yankton from tying the game as Tea won 35-28.

11AAA: Harrisburg (17-10 over Lincoln) and Brandon Valley (28-20 over O’Gorman) hung on to defeat Sioux Falls schools.

Nov. 6: South Dakota Mines (6-4) clinched their first winning football season since 2015 with a 40-17 win over New Mexico Highlands and only one game left (Colorado Mesa).
Nov. 6: The third largest college football crowd in SDSU and South Dakota history (18,122) watched the Jackrabbits defeat rival NDSU 27-19 at Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium in Brookings. The two biggest crowds were also Dakota Marker games (NDSU leads 10-8, and the overall series 63-44-5) in 2019 (19,371) and 2017 (18,130). In the 2021 game, SDSU senior running back Pierre Strong Jr. hooked up with sophomore tight end Tucker Kraft of Timber Lake for a 11-yard TD. In his career, Strong is eight for eight passing for 198 yards and five TDs with a passer rating of 514.1.
Nov. 6: Carley Jeffery got a memorable first win as a college women’s basketball head coach. Her Presentation College Saints trailed Mount Marty 50-42 with less than 90 seconds to play. However, PC got a three-pointer from Nek Newell, a defensive stop and two free throws from Kat Kriener to cut the lead to 50-47 with 54 seconds left. Newell got a steal and Kriener tied the game at 50. With 19 seconds left, Jordan Kulczyk got another steal for the Saints, and Newell found Kriener, who made another three at the buzzer for a 53-50 PC win.
Nov. 9: Another big-time name in college sports, the Oklahoma Sooners, ventured into South Dakota thanks to the Coyotes. The OU women’s basketball team nipped USD 73-71 to snap the Coyotes’ 20-game home winning streak at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center in Vermillion. USD senior and Onida native Chloe Lamb scored 18. The USD women are 65-5 at the 6,003-seat center all-time since it opened in 2016.
Nov. 9: Augustana All-American softball player Kendall Cornick is the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year. She is the first South Dakota winner and only the second non-Division I winner. The annual award was created in 1991 to recognize collegiate women who have distinguished themselves in athletics, academics, leadership and community service.
Nov. 10: Garretson junior Jenna VanHolland was named to the Class 9AA All-State team as a special teams player. She was 35 of 38 on extra-point kicks, including a game-winner in overtime in her first game. She is the first girl to earn an all-state football honor in South Dakota history.
Nov. 11-12: Three of the seven high school football state championship games in Vermillion were thrillers. Pierre rallied in the second half from 20 points behind to tie the game with 3:27 left, and then got an interception from Jacob Mayer at its own 26 with 36 seconds left. The Governors put together a drive, and Cole Peterson’s 40-yard field goal as time expired gave Pierre its fifth State 11AA title in a row.
In Class 9B, Potter County trailed Dell Rapids St. Mary 20-14, but rallied to take a 28-20 lead. DRSM tied the game with 1:06 left, and then stopped the Battlers two yards from the end zone on the final play of regulation. In the second overtime, DRSM quarterback CJ Smith hit Gabriel Lindeman for the two-point conversion and a 44-42 win.
In Class 9AA, No. 9 seed Platte-Geddes defeated No. 11 seed Canistota/Freeman 14-8. PG got its winning TD with 3:33 left in the game on a nine-yard pass from Dawson Hoffman to Aiden Bultje.
Nov. 11-13: The Pierre senior class put up some of the most impressive four-year high school football numbers in South Dakota history. The Governors have won the last five state titles and its seniors have compiled a 41-6 record — 22-2 at home — in their four years of high school. Five other teams in the seven championship games in Vermillion had seniors playing in either their third or fourth state championships: Brandon Valley (two titles, two runner-up finishes, 38-7 four-year record, including 21-3 at home); Canistota-Freeman (three titles, one runner-up finish, 40-8 record, including 18-3 at home); Bridgwater-Emery/Ethan (one title, three runner-up finishes, 41-7 record, including 23-1 at home); Winner (two titles, one runner-up finish, 41-4 record, including 25-1 at home); and Tea Area (two titles, one runner-up finish, 41-5 record, including 22-2 at home).
Nov. 12: No. 1 South Carolina defeated the USD women’s basketball team 72-41at the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls.
Nov. 12: Junior Paiton Burckhard (Aberdeen) surpassed 1,000 points in her SDSU career, but the Jackrabbits were nipped by Mississippi State 76-71 in Starkville. She became the 40th member of her school’s 1,000-point club, and joined teammates Myah Selland (Letcher) and Tyler Irwin (Wahpeton) on the list.
Nov. 12: After leading 41-38 at the half, No. 13 Alabama pulled away to beat the SDSU men’s basketball team 104-88 in Tuscaloosa. Sophomore Noah Freidel (Tea) led the Jacks with 23 points.
Nov. 13: USD’s Jeremiah Webb hauled in a 57-yard Hail Mary pass from Carson Camp on the final play of the game to give the Coyotes a 23-20 victory over SDSU in the DakotaDome in front of 9,068 fans. The ball landed at the five-yard line and was batted around twice by SDSU defenders before Webb grabbed it. The Coyotes’ game-winner came after a single second was put back on the clock after a replay review following an SDSU attempt to run out the clock on a pass deep downfield on a play that began with eight seconds remaining. It was the 113th meeting between the two rivals. The Jacks lead the series (54-52-7) that started with a 6-6 tie in 1889. USD has won the last two meetings. Each team had a senior surpass a significant career mark. Pierre Strong Jr. now has 4,086 yards rushing. The three other Jacks to accomplish that feat were Kyle Minett (2008-10) with 4,277 yards; Zach Zenner (2012-14) with 6,548 yards; and Tyndall’s Josh Ranek (1998-01) with 6,744 yards. Meanwhile, three-time USD captain Jack Cochrane now has 306 career tackles. The other six Coyotes in school history to reach 300 career tackles: Groton’s Todd Pharis (306 from 1981-84); Watertown’s Craig Austin (331 from 1978-81); Matt Madsen (336 from 1991-94); Ben Long (406 from 1976-79); Doug VanderEsch (430 from 1984-88); and Tim Seevers (437 from 1988-91).

Nov. 13: The University of Sioux Falls men’s basketball team defeated No. 1 Northwest Missouri State 83-77. It was the first time the Cougars had ever defeated a NCAA DII top-10 ranked team and USF officials called it one of the biggest wins in school history. It was only the ninth loss for Northwest Missouri in the past six seasons (vs. 162 wins), which has won national titles in 2021, 2019 and 2017.
Nov. 13: USD junior Maddie Lavin finished fifth individually to lead the Coyotes’ team to third at the USA Triathlon Collegiate National Championships in Arizona. The Vermillion native finished in 1 hour, 5 minutes and 47.7 seconds; Kira Gupta-Baltazar of the University of San Francisco won the race in 1:04.20. Arizona State won the team title for the fifth year in a row.
Nov. 13: Presentation College almost made a 55-yard field goal in the final seconds as Dakota State hung on for a 16-14 win in the football finale. PC was trying to break a 22-game winless streak (last win was Nov. 2, 2019, over Mayville 51-35).
Nov. 13: Denzel McDuffey drained a 25-foot three-pointer as time expired to give PC a 68-65 men’s basketball win over rival Trinity Bible College. Eleven days earlier, PC defeated TBC 91-64.
Nov. 20: Augustana cross country had one of its greatest days in history at the NCAA DII national championships in Florida. Redfield native and Augie coach Tracy Hellman’s women finished third and his men fourth in the nation. Also, the Vikings had six All-Americans: Megan Means (eighth overall), Nicolette Schmidt (Redfield), Patty Jo English, Mia Salas, Ryan Hartman and Henry Klitzke (Sioux Falls Lincoln).
Nov. 20: The Dakota Wesleyan volleyball team got its first win in school history in the NAIA national tournament by defeating Saint Xavier (IL) 3-1. Three South Dakotans figured into the win as Ady Dwight (Langford) and Mariah Gloe (Watertown) each had 10 kills while teammate Hanna Reiff (Chester) had 29 digs for the Tigers.
Nov. 21: The Missouri Valley Football Conference qualified a record six teams for the FCS playoffs. The conference nabbed one-fourth of the 24 spots, including home first-round games on Nov. 27 for SDSU (vs. Cal-Davis) and USD (vs. Southern Illinois).
Nov. 22: The SDSU men’s basketball team defeated Nevada 102-75 led by a combined 63 points from Douglas Wilson, Noah Freidel (Tea) and Baylor Scheierman. The Jacks are the first DI team to score 100 or more points in the Sanford Pentagon that opened in 2013 in Sioux Falls.
Nov. 25-Nov. 28: South Dakota triathlete Maddie Lavin helped Team USA win a bronze medal in the Triathlon Mixed Relay at the Junior Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia. In the women’s individual race, she finished fifth and was the first American to finish.

Nov. 26: South Dakota volleyball made it 14 straight wins over rival South Dakota State, but it wasn’t easy. The Coyotes defeated the Jacks 3-2 (20-25, 25-18, 25-20, 24-26, 18-16) in the semifinals of the Summit League Tournament at the Sanford Coyote Sports Center in Vermillion. Elizabeth Juhnke had 23 kills and 19 digs to lead the Coyotes.
Nov. 26: Washington State promoted interim coach Jake Dickert to head coach after the Cougars won their first Apple Cup since 2012 by ripping rival University of Washington 40-13. Dickert was a former assistant coach at USD, Augustana and SDSU.
Nov. 27: USD lost its first-round, home football playoff game to Southern Illinois 22-10. The last time the Coyotes hosted a playoff game in the DakotaDome was Dec. 6, 1986, when the Coyotes defeated Troy State 42-28 in NCAA DII national semifinals. USD went on to lose the national championship to NDSU 27-7.
Nov. 27: The SDSU women’s basketball team defeated No. 15 UCLA 76-66 in the Gulf Coast Showcase in Florida. The Jacks are now 15-33 against ranked opponents in the NCAA DI era.
Nov. 27: For the third time in four seasons, USD won the Summit League Volleyball Tournament and is headed to the NCAA DI Tournament. The Coyotes (20-9) swept Omaha 3-0 for the title. USD coach Leanne Willliamson is 163-75 in her eight seasons, with two regular-season conference titles (2016, 2019) under her belt as well. The Coyotes are 0-2 in the NCAA tourney, losing to Creighton in 2018 and to Missouri in 2020.
Nov. 27: SDSU tied a school record with six interceptions — three by Dalys Beanum — in its 56-24 opening round playoff game against California-Davis in Brookings. The two programs first met in Davis on Sept. 13, 1997, during the schools’ NCAA Division II eras and in what was John Stiegelmeier’s first game (a 17-7 win) as head coach of the Jackrabbits.
Nov. 27: All-tourney selection, Onida native and USD senior Chloe Lamb scored a career-high 30 points — 10 in overtime — in the Coyotes’ 72-61 win over Pittsburgh in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands. It was the Coyotes first win in program history over an ACC opponent.
Nov. 28: South Dakota School of Mines was levied a rare fine of $5,000 by the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference because of three students who verbally harassed — one using racist language — members of the Colorado Mesa University football team during a Nov. 13 game on the Mines campus, according to school and conference officials.
Nov. 29: Former Mitchell baseball standout Michael Sadler continued his upward protectory as a strength and conditioning coach in the Seattle Mariners organization. He won a pro baseball strength coach of the year award for his work in 2021 and was promoted to the Mariners’ Triple-A affiliate Tacoma (WA) Rainiers for the 2022 season.
Nov. 29: Fresno State coach Kalen DeBoer was hired by the University of Washington as its football coach. DeBoer is a Milbank native who helped the University of Sioux Falls win four national titles (three as coach, one as a player). His coaching record is 79-9.
Nov. 30: The Presentation College men’s basketball team had a November to remember. Along with a six-game winning streak earlier in the month, the Saints played at SDSU (99-62 loss on Nov. 18); at USD (99-58 loss on Nov. 23); at NSU (83-47 loss on Nov. 27); and at UND (72-55 loss on Nov. 30).
Nov. 30: Sturgis snowboarder Dennae Russell, 29, is in Europe for the next month working to qualify for the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing. Her right leg was amputated above the knee in 2016 due to cancer.