SMSU Defeated 3-1 by Wayne State in NSIC Semifinal

Box Score

ST. PAUL, MINN.: The No. 2 seed Southwest Minnesota State University Mustangs were defeated by No. 3 seed Wayne State College 3-1 (26-30, 30-27, 28-30, 27-30) in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Semifinal on Friday night.

Wayne State, who also defeated the Mustangs last year in the semifinals round, improves to 23-11 overall while advancing to the NSIC Championship to face the winner of Concordia and MSU Moorhead.

SMSU falls to 25-7 overall and finished the night with a .202 hitting percentage compared to WSC's .234 hitting percentage. The Wildcats were lead by Brittany Van Beek (23 kills), Emily Schroeder (16 kills) and Lea Hartigan (13 kills) in the victory. Schroeder had a triple-double for the Cats.

The Mustangs were led by senior Erin Contons who had 24 kills with a .250 hitting percentage while also tallying 16 digs. Leah Ashburn had 10 kills with a .238 hitting percentage while being second on the team with seven blocks.

Tricia Ingvalson and Laura Hegerle each had nine kills while Sara Graf and Krystal Schwanke chipped in eight.

Sarah Quiram had a team-high and career-high 34 digs while Graf was second on 17 digs while Contons added 16.

Schwanke led the team in blocks with nine while having a career-high 12 digs. Graf set up the Mustangs with 54 set assists in the match.

The Mustangs out-blocked WSC 15-to12 and also had 97 digs compared to the Wildcats 91. Both teams were equal in kills with SMSU tallying 68 and WSC having 69.

Southwest, who is currently ranked third in the North Central Region, will advance to the NCAA Regional Tournament held in Duluth, with game times and finals seeds yet to be determined. The announcement will be made Monday, Nov. 12 at 8 a.m.

Leah Ashburn goes up against WSC's Emily Schroeder

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