Box Score
WINONA, Minn.- Taylor Reiss tied her season high with 28 kills in a back-and-forth, 20-25, 25-18, 25-15, 19-25, 15-10, five-set win for No. 2 Southwest Minnesota State (19-1, 11-1 NSIC) on the road at No. 15 Winona State (14-6, 8-4 NSIC) on Friday night in the McCown Gymnasium.
The win gives the second ranked Mustangs a 9-1 record this season against the AVCA Top-25.
Reiss tallied up her 28 kills on 65 total swings with just two errors for a hitting percentage of .400 while also adding 20 digs to give the junior outside hitter her ninth double-double and her third 20-20 match of the season.
After a slow start with only one kill,
Sarina Smith improved as the match went along and finished 14 kills and a .619 hitting percentage.
Brooke Borchardt finished the match with 11 kills and
Megan Larson finished with 51 assists, just two shy of hitting her 5,000th career assist.
Kaylee Burmeister struggled offensively but added 15 digs on defense and also had two service aces.
Dani Potter had three aces and a season-best 19 digs.
Southwest Minnesota State finished with a .310 hitting percentage but were forced to keep up with a Winona State attack that finished with 68 kills including 20 in set one alone.
SMSU, which had only dropped one opening set on the season entering the weekend, gave up an early lead and took a timeout trailing 10-6 to start the match.
Taylor Reiss would grab eight kills on only 13 attacks (.615) in the first set but Winona State racked up a .327 hitting percentage to start the match. SMSU got within three points on three different occasions in the first set but the Warriors were able to put away a 25-20 win to take a one set lead.
The Mustangs used a dominant 12-3 run in the middle of the second set as
Taylor Reiss added another five kills in the second to help SMSU to a 25-18 win, evening the match at one set each.
The third set saw no lead changes as SMSU went on another 12-3 run after the Warriors had evened the game at 10-10. SMSU scored three of the final four rallies to win the third set decisvely, 25-15 which gave the Mustangs a 2-1 lead in the match.
The fourth set was even at 14-14 before the Warriors pulled away to force a fifth set with a 25-19 win. Winona State finished with a .464 hitting percentage in game four while SMSU was held to just .194 hitting.
Taylor Reiss finished off her big night with another six kills in the fifth set as SMSU went on a 5-0 run in a set that was tied at 10-10 to capture the road victory with a 15-10 win in the fifth.
SMSU will look for a fourth straight NSIC win as it travels to play at Upper Iowa tomorrow afternoon beginning at 2 p.m.
