THE FIRST SERVE
The No. 7 Southwest Minnesota State Mustang volleyball team finished the 2013 regular season with a 17-3 record in the Northern Intercollegiate Conference to earn a third place finish and the right to host a first round conference game. The third seeded Mustangs will host the sixth seed Wayne State College Wildcats on Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 7 p.m. SMSU defeated WSC in its lone meeting earlier this season, 3-1 in Marshall. SMSU, the two seed last year, captured the 2012 NSIC / US Bank Tournament by defeating Minnesota State, No. 3 Minnesota Duluth and No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul at the Gangelhoff Center on the campus of Concordia-St.Paul in St. Paul, Minn. 

SCOUTING REPORT
Wayne State (Neb.)-- The Wildcats finished the 2013 regular season with an overall record of 21-9 and a sixth place finish in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference with a 12-8 record. The Wildcats enter the NSIC tournament on a two-match winning streak - boasting wins over U-Mary and Minot State. WSC has compiled a road record of 8-4 this season, including a 3-1 loss to SMSU in the PE Gym earlier this season on Sept. 21. WSC is led by Cori Hobbs and her 3.44 kills per set, which ranks ninth in the NSIC. WSC owns the NSIC's Freshman of the Year in middle hitter Alyssa Frauendorfter. Hobbs and Leisa McClintock represented WSC on the All-NSIC team along with Frauendorfer. WSC earned a NSIC tournament berth but is on the outside looking for the NCAA tournament. WSC is ranked No. 10 in the latest NCAA Central Region rankings -- the top eight teams are selected to the NCAA tournament. WSC is headed by Scott Kneifl in his ninth season.

LAST WEEK'S RECAP
No. 8 Southwest Minnesota State went 3-0 this week to close out the 2013 regular season. The Mustangs defeated Augustana, MSU Moorhead and No. 22 Northern State all in four sets to earn a third-place finish with a 17-3 record in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.

Whitney Burmeister smacked a match-high 18 kills on Tuesday to lead SMSU over Augie in four by set scores of 15-25, 25-23, 28-26, and 25-20. It was SMSU's 15th straight victory over Augie -- a winning streak that dates back to the 2005 season. SMSU is now 15-1 against Augustana under head coach Terry Culhane.

SMSU secured the third-seed in the upcoming NSIC 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. 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.

SMSU 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. 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.