BOX SCORE

ABERDEEN, S.D. – No. 8 Southwest Minnesota State closed the regular season with a big 3-1 road victory over No. 22 Northern State on Saturday night in Aberdeen, S.D. SMSU won by scores of 27-29, 25-21, 25-19, 25-20.

SMSU improves to 23-6 overall, 17-3 NSIC, and will open the NSIC tournament on Wednesday night as the No. 3 seed and will host No. 6 seed Wayne State at 7 p.m. SMSU defeated WSC 3-1 on Sept. 21 in Marshall in the only match-up between the teams this season.

SMSU was ranked No. 5 in this week's NCAA Central Region rankings, while NSU was ranked No. 8.

Abbey Thissen paced the Mustangs with a match-high 19 kills and finished hitting a team-high .371. Claire Sames (18), Whitney Burmeister (16) and McKell Anderson (13) all finished with double figure kills for SMSU, which hit .242 (75-32-178) in the match and recorded 12 blocks. Rachel Westby paced the SMSU defense with 20 digs, while Emilee Gutzmer had 67 set assists.

NSU (21-6, 14-6 NSIC) hit .195 (48-17-159) and had seven blocks.