BOX SCORE
MOORHEAD, Minn. – No. 8 Southwest Minnesota State secured the third-seed in the upcoming Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament with a 3-1 road victory over MSU Moorhead on Friday night. SMSU won by scores of 23-25, 25-17, 25-22 and 25-21.
SMSU improves to 22-6 overall, 16-3 NSIC and holds a two-match lead over fourth place Northern State. MSU Moorhead drops to 15-12 overall, 8-11 NSIC.
SMSU closes the regular season tomorrow night at Northern State starting at 5 p.m. SMSU trails second place Minnesota Duluth by one match heading into the final day of the season. UMD will host No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday.
Claire Sames paced SMSU with 17 kills and finished with a .316 hitting percentage.
Sarah Parker also had a big night for the Mustangs racking up a career-high 13 kills, while hitting a team-high .360. Abby Thissen finished with 15 kills, while
McKell Anderson and
Whitney Burmeister each added 11 kills.
Emilee Gutzmer finished with a match-high 54 assists, while
Rachel Westby added a match-high 22 digs.
SMSU finished the match hitting .256 (68-24-172) with 69 digs and six blocks. MSUM ended the match hitting .228 (48-15-145) with 62 digs and 12 blocks.
The Dragons started the match strong and led for much of set one. MSUM held a 24-19 lead before SMSU reeled off four straight points, capped by a
McKell Anderson kill, to make the score 24-23 and forcing MSUM to call a timeout. But following the timeout MSUM was able to end the run with a kill by Maggie Gruber to earn the set victory 25-23.
SMSU answered back in set two breaking open an 8-7 lead with a 14-4 run to take a 22-13 lead. MSUM scored four of the next five points to make the score 23-17, but back-to-back kills by Parker closed the set for the Mustangs and even the match.
The two teams played to a 10-10 score in set three before kills by Burmeister and Parker sandwiched around an MSUM hitting error gave SMSU a 13-10 lead and forcing a Dragon timeout. A kill later in the set by Parker made the score 23-18 in favor of SMSU, but MSUM countered with four unanswered points to force a Mustang timeout. The rallied quickly ended following the timeout as a service error and a service ace by the Mustangs'
Ellen Degler closed out a 25-22 SMSU set victory and take a 2-1 lead.
MSUM stormed out in set four building a 10-2 lead and forcing SMSU to burn a pair of timeouts. SMSU would slowly cut into the lead and following a service ace by Gutzmer to make the score 14-10, MSUM called its first timeout of the set. The Dragons scored the next two points, but kills by Parker and Thissen and a Dragon hitting error made the score 16-13. Trailing 20-18, SMSU made another big run with Anderson collecting a kill and was followed by an ace serve by Burmeister and a kill by Sames to give SMSU its first lead of the set at 21-20.
A service error by SMSU tied the match at 21, but a pair of kills by Anderson and one each by Sames and Parker closed the match to secure SMSU's fourth straight victory and improve its record to 7-3 on the road.
Southwest Minnesota State will open the NSIC tournament at home on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. versus an opponent to be determined.
