BOX SCORE

MARSHALL, Minn. - Behind a balanced attack, the No. 1 Southwest Minnesota State volleyball team took down the No. 22 Minnesota State Mavericks at the PE Gym on Friday night. SMSU earned the match win with set victories of 25-21, 24-26, 25-15 and 25-17. With the win, SMSU extends its consecutive match winning streak to 19, while improving its record to 26-1 overall, 18-1 in the NSIC. The Mavericks drop to 17-10 overall, 11-8 in the NSIC.

All four sets were a series of runs as both the Mavericks and Mustangs reeled off numerous runs throughout each and every set. The Mustangs started slow, but finished strong. The Mustangs continued the winning streak over Minnesota State at home as SMSU hasn't lost to the Mavericks at the PE Gym since Oct. 29, 1998. SMSU is now 12-4 all-time versus Minnesota State under head coach Terry Culhane.  

Beginning in the first, MSU put together an 8-0 run to pull ahead 11-3. SMSU would answer with a 6-0 run of its own to climb its way back out of the early hole and back into the match. SMSU would recapture the lead, 14-13 on an attack error by Courteney Steinhauser. The Mustangs wouldn't look back as they would take the set 25-21.

The Mustangs would seem to have a handle of the Mavericks' blocking attack but in the second set, MSU would sneak back into the set with 4-0 run to cut the deficit to 20-18. MSU would turn to its blocking to slow down the SMSU attack. The Mavericks rallied late in the set to take it 26-24, Kayla Berning connected on a solo block to hand SMSU only its 10th set loss all season.

SMSU got back to its winning ways in the third set as the Mustangs handled the Mavericks soundly with a .406 hitting percentage. The Mustangs never trailed in the third set as they dominated 25-15.

SMSU would carry the momentum gained in the third set to fuel them to a 25-17 set victory in the fourth set. SMSU found the holes in MSU's defense as the offense recorded a .375 hitting percentage.

On senior night, the seniors stepped up big, as Devin Diedrich led a balanced offensive attack with 15 kills. Fellow seniors Brooke Burmeister and Mary Groth both recorded 12 and 10 kills respectively. Abbey Thissen pounded 14 kills, and McKell Anderson had 12. NSIC Freshman of the Year, Emilee Gutzmer recorded 60 assists and 13 digs for her eighth double-double on the season, while McKell Anderson also picked up a double-double in the match, her third of the season (12 kills, 12 digs). Rachel Westby was all over the court in the match as the junior libero posted 20 digs. As a unit, the Mustangs had a .273 attack percentage in the match win.

For the Mavericks, Chelsea Fogarty had 15 kills, while teammate Courteney Steinhauser had 13 of her own. Jill Storlie was solid as she posted seven block assists to go with her nine kills.

SMSU will wrap up the regular season tomorrow afternoon with a match-up with conference foe No. 2 Concordia-St. Paul at 4 p.m. at the PE Gym.