BOX SCORE

MARSHALL, Minn. - Claire Sames denied Minot State's last three attack attempts to lead Southwest Minnesota State to a four-point rally in set three to seal the set and match. The Mustangs won by set scores of 25-14, 25-20, and 25-20 to take their second match over MISU this season. Sames, SMSU's leading blocker, finished the match with six block assists and one solo denial. She now has 62 block assists and 17 solos on the season.

Abbey Thissen led SMSU (19-6, 14-3 NSIC) offensively as she tallied a match-high 15 kills on 27 attempts (.370%). Whitney Burmeister chipped in with 11 kills on 28 attacks.

It was all Mustangs in set one as SMSU cruised to a 25-14 victory. The Beavers hung tough early, but would succumb to a 7-2 Mustang rally that would push the score to 18-9. SMSU turned to its service game late as Burmeister rattled off three straight to make it a 23-14 advantage - Burmeister would finish the match with just those three aces. Emilee Gutzmer put the lid on things as she connected on one of her four kills in the match to end set one in favor of the Mustangs. 

Set two saw the Mustangs jump out to a 10-4 lead thanks in part to a pair of kills from Thissen and Burmeister. SMSU grew its lead to 19-13 with another Burmeister kill but would face a Beaver comeback. MISU scored seven of the next ten points to shrink the Mustang lead down to 22-20. Terry Culhane called his second timeout of the set to slow the momentum and it worked. Out of the timeout SMSU turned to its heavy hitter - Thissen, who slammed home three straight kills to lift SMSU to a 25-20 set victory heading into the break.  

SMSU grew another comfortable lead in set three as Thissen pushed the score to 11-5 with another kill. Two straight Beaver attack errors prompted third-year head coach Travis Ward to take his first timeout with the score set in favor of SMSU, 17-11. From there, MISU put together a late 8-3 surge to tie the set at 20 - capped by a Jen Dixon service ace. The Beaver surge would end promptly at the hands of Sames as she got her hand in the last three Beaver attacks - blocking all three to give SMSU the set and match.

With the loss, MISU dropped to 12-15 overall, 7-10 in the NSIC, but still remains in the hunt for a berth into the NSIC conference tournament.

SMSU's alumni weekend will continue tomorrow afternoon with a match versus the University of Mary. First serve is set for 3 p.m.