BOX SCORE
MARSHALL, Minn. – Behind
Whitney Burmeister's match-high 18 kills, Southwest Minnesota State extended its match-winning streak over Augustana to 15 straight with a 3-1 non-conference victory over the Vikings on Tuesday. SMSU earned the match victory with set scores of 15-25, 25-23, 28-26, and 25-20.
SMSU's winning streak over Augie dates back to the 2005 season and is now 15-1 against Augustana under head coach
Terry Culhane. SMSU improves to 21-6 overall, while Augie drops to 20-7.
SMSU got off to a sluggish start in set one and never got into a rhythm. Augustana would take advantage of the out-of-sync Mustangs and would cruise to a 25-15 set victory behind Holly Hafemeyer and her three first-set kills. Augustana committed just two errors in the set and forced seven SMSU errors.
SMSU bounced back in set two to tie the match heading into intermission. The Mustangs turned to
Abbey Thissen to right the ship and she directed the offense with six kills and just two errors in the set. SMSU trailed 12-9 but would take the lead at 15-14 with one of
Ellen Degler's three service aces. SMSU grew its lead to 21-17 only to see Augustana storm back to make it 21-20 and force an SMSU timeout. Out of the timeout SMSU regrouped and scored three straight to take its first set point at 24-20. The Vikings were pesky and fended off the first three set points but it was all for not as Thissen slammed home the final point to give SMSU a 25-23 win.
SMSU faced adversity again in set three as the Mustangs found themselves down 16-13 but Burmeister came up big with a kill, followed by a
Rachel Westby service ace to close the gap to 16-15. SMSU would close the gap at 21 with a
Claire Sames kill and would later hold set point at 24-23 but Brittany Cech delivered one of her nine kills in the match. Augie would get a chance to take the set shortly after when Burmeister committed an attack error and the score showed 25-24 in favor of the Vikings. SMSU tied things up and would go up 27-26 on a pair of Thissen kills and would eventually take the set and a 2-1 lead heading into the fourth set as
Claire Sames and
Emilee Gutzmer teamed up to block Courtney Ysker's attack.
Gutzmer's and Sames' kill got the PE Gym rocking but the momentum did not roll over into the fourth set as the Vikings would grow an early 9-5 lead. The lead would get extended to five points with a Holly Hafemeyer kill to push the Augie lead to 17-12. It was then when the Mustangs started their comeback and reeled off nine straight points to erase the deficit and take a 21-17 lead. Again it was Gutmzer who delivered in the clutch for SMSU as this time she delivered a service ace to give SMSU a 25-20 set and match victory.
SMSU finished the match hitting .172 (56-27-169), collected 54 assists, 85 digs, eight aces and eight total blocks. Augustana finished the match hitting .188 (51-20-165), collected 46 assists, 71 digs, six aces and 14 total blocks.
SMSU was led by Burmeister's match-high 18 kills, while Thissen and Sames added 13 and 11, respectively. Gutzmer finished with 50 assists and Westby had a fantastic defensive effort on senior night – racking up a career-high 32 digs.
SMSU (21-6, 15-3 NSIC) will close the 2013 regular season on the road this weekend with matches versus MSU Moorhead and No. 22 Northern State.
