DENVER, Colo.- The Southwest Minnesota State's second ranked women's volleyball team swept No. 8 Ferris State while
Megan Larson became the program's all-time assist leader to help SMSU start the Colorado Premier 2-0 at Regis Fieldhouse on Friday night.
Box Score
SMSU vs. No. 20 Tampa- Second ranked Southwest Minnesota State (5-0) held No. 20 Tampa (2-3) to a .163 hitting percentage as the Mustangs won, 25-22, 25-19, 25-15 to sweep their opening game in the Colorado Premier Challenge.
Megan Larson had three kills, 10 digs and 40 assists in the match. She now sits just 25 assists away from breaking the all-time program record for career assists.
The Mustangs finished the match with seven total service aces as a team and went 43 of 58 for the match on sideout attempts.
Southwest Minnesota State had a .280 hitting percentage as
Taylor Reiss (11),
Kaylee Burmeister (10) and freshman
Sarina Smith (10) each had double-digit kills.
Brooke Borchardt added another nine kills and Mustangs' freshman libero
Payton Hjerleid had five digs and four service aces in the win.
The Spartans jumped out to a 6-3 lead early in the very first set but SMSU responded by winning four of the next five points to bring the score to 7-7. The Mustangs took control of the first game with a 6-0 run to go up 16-12. The opening set saw another three ties but two attack errors, a blocking error and a service error helped SMSU take the first set 25-22.
The second and third sets saw just five ties and two lead changes combined as the Mustangs cruised through the remainder of the match going 15-of-19 (78 percent) and 13-of-16 (81 percent) on sideouts in the second and third sets respectively.
SMSU finished with 17 kills and a .400 attack percentage in the third to finish off the sweep and remain unbeaten on the young season.
Box Score
SMSU vs. No. 8 Ferris State- Megan Larson tallied another 40 assists to move into first place in Mustangs' program history for career assists and SMSU swept Ferris State to remain unbeaten on Friday night in the Regis Fieldhouse.
The Mustangs had another seven blocks as a team and held Ferris State to a .107 hitting percentage in the win.
Erin Corrigan had 15 digs, Larson added 11 digs and
Kaylee Burmeister posted a double-double with 10 kills and 14 digs.
Taylor Reiss finished with 12 kills and a .364 hitting percentage in the win.
SMSU trailed 21-16 in the opening set of the match and went on a 4-1 run to get back to within two points. The Mustangs would later tie the set at 23-23 and took a 1-0 lead in the match off of a kill and service ace from Reiss to win the first game, 27-25. SMSU finished with 19 kills as a team in the first set and a .261 hitting percentage.
The Mustangs led the entire way in set two as SMSU jumped out to a 9-2 advantage to start. The Mustangs held Ferris State to a .022 hitting percentage in the second set with 22 digs as a team.
The Mustangs went 13-of-15 on sideouts in the third set as they dominated the Bulldogs on the way to a 25-14 win to complete the sweep.
SMSU will now advance to the Gold Bracket of the Colorado Premier Challenge where they will face Tareleton State for a place in the championship match to be played on Saturday night at Auraria Event Center on the campus of MSU Denver at 10 a.m.
