Box Score

MARSHALL, MINN:  Senior Kasey Loeslie had a  match-high 11 kills to lead No. 7 Southwest Minnesota State to a 3-1 (25-12, 25-14, 25-16) conference win over Minnesota, Crookston Saturday night in Marshall.

SMSU improves to 18-2 (7-1, NSIC); UMC drops to 2-14 (2-5, NSIC).

Loeslie's 11 kills were accompanied by senior Laura Hegerle's 10.  Tory Brouwer just missed double digits in the kills column with nine, but the junior had a career-high .692 hitting percentage.

The Mustangs as a team hit a stellar .374.

Defensively, senior Sarah Quiram led SMSU with a match-high 11 digs, while junior setter effectively directed an efficient SMSU offense with 31 assists.  She also chipped in three service aces.

The Mustangs never trailed the Golden Eagles and bettered the visiting team in every statistical category en route to the sweep.

SMSU hit .481 in the first set and never fell below .300 for the remaining sets.  The hitting tempo was in the favor of the Mustangs throughout the match, with SMSU putting together several clusters of four to five point runs to establish big, sometimes double digit, leads.

A middle-blocker wall built by Loeslie and Diedrich held UMC to just 26 kills and a .133 hitting percentage on the match.  The two 6-footers combined for nine stuffs.

The Mustangs finish up their four-match homestand next weekend when they host Winona State and Upper Iowa on Friday and Saturday.  Both matches are conference contests.