PENSACOLA, Fla.- No. 2 Southwest Minnesota State held both of its first two opponents under a .200 hitting percentage as the Mustangs opened the West Florida Invitational with 3-1 victories over both Northern Alabama and No. 11 Wheeling Jesuit on Friday from the UWF Fieldhouse.
Box Score
SMSU vs. Northern Alabama- Taylor Reiss picked up where she left off in 2016 with 26 kills and 19 digs as the second ranked SMSU volleyball team defeated North Alabama in four sets, 25-21, 29-31, 25-19, 25-22.
Kaylee Burmeister and
Brooke Borchardt each added 11 kills and
Megan Larson racked up 48 assists in the first of two matches on the day for SMSU.
The Mustangs defended well holding North Alabama to a .173 hitting percentage and had 10 total blocks as a team. Larson added nine digs, while Burmeister and
Dani Potter each had double digit digs with 15 and 12 respectively.
After winning the first set, SMSU trailed for most of the second falling behind 17-12 after a Mustangs' hitting error. SMSU climbed back into the game and looked to take a two set lead after pulling even at 25-25 to force extra points. The two teams went back and forth until back-to-back hitting errors from SMSU evened the match at one set apiece. Reiss had 13 kills in the second set alone as the Mustangs' comeback attempt fell just short.
SMSU trailed early in the third set as well falling behind 9-5 before reeling off seven straight points to take control of the set. The Mustangs went on a 4-0 run to go up 18-13 and used a 5-2 run to put the third game away by a score of 25-19.
A close fourth set saw four different tied scores but three kills from Reiss and another UNA hitting error helped SMSU put the match away to begin the season 1-0.
The Mustangs have now won 14 of their last 15 season openers overall.
Box Score
SMSU vs. No. 11 Wheeling Jesuit- SMSU closed out a perfect first day at the UWF Hampton Inn-Vitational with a 3-1 win (25-23, 25-19, 21-25, 25-21) over No. 11 Wheeling Jesuit on Friday afternoon.
Mustangs' libero and newcomer, Dani Potter had 12 digs in the win and in her just her second career college match, middle blocker
Sarina Smith had 11 kills with a .600 hitting percentage.
The usual suspects filled up much of the box score for the Mustangs as
Taylor Reiss and Kaylee Burmeister combined for 39 kills and 29 digs. Reiss had another double-double with 25 kills and 12 digs in and Burmeister had 14 kills with 17 digs.
Megan Larson also had a double-double with 55 assists and 20 digs while
Brooke Borchardt added nine kills in game two.
The Mustangs gained early momentum with a win in a tight first set that saw 13 ties and eight lead changes, winning by a score of 25-23.
SMSU jumped out to an early 7-3 lead in the second set and led the whole way as
Taylor Reiss added nine kills to help the Mustangs go ahead 2-0 in the match.
The Mustangs had their worst offensive set for the match in the third hitting just .163 with only 15 kills as a team but were still within striking distance trailing 23-21 late.
Two unforced errors put the game away however and the Cardinals got one set back with the 25-21 win.
SMSU and Wheeling Jesuit went back and forth again in the fourth and trailed by one when a kill from Reiss spurred a 4-1 run to end the match.
The Mustangs will return to the UWF Fieldhouse tomorrow when they face Southern Indiana at 9 a.m., and later conclude the weekend against West Florida at 3:30 p.m.
