Box Score
MARSHALL, Minn.—Southwest Minnesota State had eight service aces and hit a season high .471 on Saturday afternoon to sweep (25-15, 25-18, 25-8) Minot State at home and seal its share of the 2016 NSIC regular season championship.
It is SMSU's fourth conference championship in program history and first since 2012.
Taylor Reiss notched another double-double with a match high 15 kills and 11 digs. Reiss, the NSIC Player of the Year, also recorded five service aces and had her second highest attack percentage of the season hitting .500 on the afternoon (she hit .643 vs Upper Iowa on 10/7).
Eisha Oden added 12 kills and four blocks while
Kaylee Burmeister added another eight kills and six digs. With the match well in hand in the third set, NSIC Coach of the Year,
Terry Culhane, utilized more of his bench than usual.
Jenna Walczak had four kills on just five attacks while
Ellie Senica had two kills on just three attacks.
The Mustangs controlled the first two sets with 18 kills and a .375 attack percentage in the first. SMSU never trailed in the first set and had three service aces while Reiss and Oden each had six kills to open the match. The second set saw six tied scores and four lead changes before the Mustangs were able to pull away finishing with a .444 hitting percentage and 16 kills as a team.
SMSU saved its best for last going on a 15-1 run to essentially put the match on ice as the Mustangs went ahead 20-4. The Mustangs hit .615 with just one hitting error in the third set and finished with a 77 percent sideout percentage to win 25-8.
SMSU (24-4, 18-2 NSIC) ended the season by winning its final four matches and 18 of its final 19 matches to finish in a tie with Concordia-St. Paul (26-2, 18-2 NSIC) atop the final NSIC standings heading into the conference tournament. This marks the fourth conference championship in SMSU school history and the first since 2012. (SMSU also won conference titles in '85 and '01).
The win for SMSU, which lasted just over an hour (1:03), was the second win for the Mustangs over Minot State this season after defeating the Beavers 25-10, 25-20, 25-14 back on Sept. 24. SMSU has still never lost a set versus Minot State as they now lead the series 7-0.
The Mustangs will now turn their attention to the NSIC conference tournament which will begin on Wednesday night when SMSU hosts Sioux Falls at 7 p.m.
