THE FIRST SERVE
The No. 5 Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball team will look to build on a strong start when they travel to Denver, Colo. to compete in the Colorado Premier Challenge on Sept.9-10. They will meet West Florida in the first match on Friday at 1 p.m. followed by a match against No. 18 Colorado School of Mines at 8 p.m. The Mustangs opened the 2016 season going 3-1 last weekend in Romeoville, Ill. in the Lewis University (Ill.) invite. Southwest Minnesota State's wins came over Michigan Tech, No. 19 Palm Beach Atlantic, and Wisconsin-Parkside. The Mustangs only loss came in the first match of day two, losing 3-1 to No. 8 Lewis (Ill.). Taylor Reiss was named to the Lewis Invite's All-tournament selections.

OPPONENTS AT A GLANCE
West Florida— West Florida, members of the Gulf South Conference, started its season 2-2 at the Hampton Inn-vitational in Pensacola, Fla. The Argonauts posted wins over Findlay (Ohio) and Carson Newman (Tenn.) but lost two matches over the weekend to No. 6 Central Missouri and No. 2 Wheeling Jesuit (Neb.). The Argonauts began the year ranked 23rd in the AVCA preseason coaches' poll. The preseason favorites to win the GSC, West Florida's 2016 roster includes 14 returning letterwinners from a 2015 team that finished 28-7 (19-1).

Colorado School of Mines— The No. 18 Colorado School of Mines Orediggers travel to the Colorado Premier with a 4-0 record to start the season. The Orediggers opened their 2016 season by hosting the Orediggers Volleyball Classic in Golden, Colo. Sept. 2-3. The Orediggers swept their first three matches against St. Cloud State, Dallas Baptist, and Edinboro (Pa.) and closed out the weekend with a 3-2 victory over Cal State L.A. Colorado School of Mines began the year ranked 25th in the preseason AVCA coaches' poll.

SERIES HISTORY
West Florida — Southwest Minnesota State will meet the West Florida Argonauts for the fifth time in history and for the second consecutive season. SMSU owns a 3-1 advantage in the previous matches which have all been played on neutral sites in the month of September with the first three matches coming in the Colorado Premier. SMSU was swept in the first meeting back in 2009 but has won each match since including a 3-2 (19-25, 25-16, 22-25, 25-21, 15-10) victory last season in the Hampton Inn-vitational.

Colorado School of Mines— Southwest Minnesota State will face No. 18 Colorado School of Mines for just the third time all-time meeting. SMSU currently holds a 2-0 advantage after winning both matches, both of which were played during the 2010 season. SMSU swept the first match before winning the postseason rematch in five sets. The last meeting was played in Marshall in the first round of the 2010 NCAA Central Regional with the Mustangs winning 21-25, 25-18, 22-25, 25-12, 15-9.

NATIONAL NEWS
SMSU is currently ranked fifth in the most recent AVCA poll. The Mustangs have now been ranked in the Top-25 for 135 consecutive polls dating back to Sept. 5, 2006 and have been ranked in the Top-10 for 39 consecutive polls.

HEAD COACH
Terry Culhane is in his 13th season at the helm of the Mustang volleyball team. During his tenure Culhane has transformed SMSU into a premier volleyball program becoming the winningest head coach in program history in both total wins and winning percentage. He has accumulated an overall record of 315-88 (.782), including a 182-42 record in conference matches. Culhane has led SMSU to 12-consecutive NCAA tournament appearances, including seven appearances in the region semifinals and two region championship appearances along with the program's first ever national championship appearance in 2014.

AGAINST THE NATION'S BEST
SMSU enters the weekend with a 1-1 record against nationally ranked opponents after beating No. 3 Palm Beach Atlantic and losing to No. 18 Lewis (Ill.) in the Lewis Invite. The Mustangs will face at least one more Top-25 team this week as they prepare to face No. 18 Colorado School of Mines who jumped six spots in this week's AVCA coaches' poll. SMSU finished 2015 with a 9-6 record against nationally ranked opponents.

THE COLORADO PREMIER CHALLENGE
The Colorado Premier is an annual invite only tournament for Division II volleyball programs that is hosted by Metropolitan State University of Denver and Regis University (Colo.). The tournament will be celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2016. The 12-team, two-day tournament is structured with four pools of three teams each. Day one consists of strictly pool play while matchups for day two are divided into bronze, silver, and gold brackets. Final round matchups may be switched to aviod conference intra-conference pairings.

SMSU IN THE COLORADO PREMIER
Southwest Minnesota State will be making the trip to Denver for the Colorado Premier Challenge for the eighth time since the tournament's inception and for the fourth consecutive season. The Mustangs are 20-8 all-time in the Colorado Premier.  Three SMSU players, Abbey Thissen, Megan Larson, and Eisha Oden, were named to the 2015 Colorado Premier All-Tournament Team. The Mustangs have had 14 players recieve All-Tournament selections in their history at the Colorado Premier. Southwest Minnesota State's best team finish at the Colorado Premier came back in 2014 when they were named co-champions after a 4-way split was required between SMSU, Concordia, Tampa, and Minnesota Duluth. SMSU has also finished 3rd on two occasions as well as finishing runner-up twice. ­­

NSIC PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Sophomore, Taylor Reiss was the first SMSU player of the year to earn Player of the Week after she was named the NSIC Offensive Player of the Week on Tuesday. Reiss played all 15 sets for the Mustangs recording a team high 85 kills as well as 33 digs, eight blocks. She finished the weekend with a .343 hitting percentage and a conference leading 6.07 points per set in four matches for the Mustangs. This marks the fist career Offensive Player of the Week for Reiss after she earned the conference's Defensive Player of the Week recognition twice in 2015.

RECORD SETTING REISS
Sophomore, Taylor Reiss, set the Southwest Minnesota State record for kills (35) in 4 sets falling just three shy of the single-match record. Her performance broke a record that had stood 26 years and was set by Beth Elliot versus Winona State back in October of 1990. Her 79 total attacks were the fourth most attempts in the program's history for four sets and tied for eighth in all matches.

TOUGH COMPETITION
Southwest Minnesota State face another tough schedule in the 2016 as five schools from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate conference made it into the AVCA preseason Top-25 poll while three of those schools made it into the Top-10 including top ranked Concordia-St. Paul. Four of the Mustangs' six scheduled non-conference opponents appeared in the AVCA preseason Top-25 including 2015 national runners-up, Palm Beach Atlantic (Fla). The Mustangs are scheduled to take on another ranked team, No. 18 Colorado School of Mines, in their second match at the Colorado Premier on Friday at 8 p.m.