Box Score

MARSHALL, Minn. – The No. 10 Southwest Minnesota State volleyball team (13-5, 8-2 NSIC) defeated No. 5 Minnesota Duluth (13-5, 8-2 NSIC) in four-sets on Friday night in the PE Gym to open its homecoming weekend.
 
Taylor Reiss led the Mustangs, and tied the match-high, with 16 kills in the victory. Reiss recorded her 13^th double-double by adding 13 digs. Meg Schmidt earned a career-high 13 kills with three blocks and Payton Hjerleid also recorded a career-high 10 assists and added eight digs.
 
UMD's Kate Berg tied Reiss with 16 kills followed by 15 from Sarah Kelly. UMD's Emily Torve recorded 48 assists in UMD's second conference loss.
 
SMSU opened the match with an early lead in set one, with by two service aces from Erin Corrigan and Kaylee Burmeister. The Mustangs maintained the lead and never looked back as they recorded a .375 team hitting percentage.  Sarina Smith recorded six kills in the first set to give the Mustangs a 25-18 edge.
 
The Mustangs held the lead for most of set two before the Bulldogs tied the match at 22-22. A kill from Sarina Smith would give the Mustangs the 23-22 advantage and an attack error on the Bulldogs would give the Mustangs a set-point advantage. A setting error on the Mustangs and a service error from the Bulldogs inevitably ended the match with a 25-23 Mustangs victory.
 
UMD went on a 7-0 run in the third set to go up 17-6 as the Bulldogs offense recorded four consecutive kills. The Mustangs rallied back to lower the deficit to as little as five points. The Mustangs could hold UMD at 23 and go on 8-0 run to trail 23-19. However, the Bulldogs pulled away, with a kill from Abby Thor, to win 25-21.
 
 The Mustangs took set four with a match-high .378 hitting percentage and only two errors throughout the set. The Mustangs trailed 8-10 before the Mustangs battled to tie the set at 12-12. The Mustangs went point-for-point as the Mustangs battled the Bulldogs strong offense, going back-and-forth with kills from SMSU's Taylor Reiss and UMD's Sarah Kelly. With the set tied at 23, Meg Schmidt delivered the final points of the match with two consecutive kills for a 25-23, match victory.
 
The Bulldogs entered the match having previously defeated No. 3 Concordia-St. Paul, who has defeated SMSU twice this season, on Wednesday in a non-conference match-up. Tonight, SMSU served UMD its second conference loss of the season. UMD's only other conference loss was a 3-0 loss to St. Cloud State on Sept. 11.
 
SMSU (13-5, 8-2 NSIC) hosts St. Cloud State (10-6, 6-4 NSIC) on Saturday at 2 p.m. in the PE Gym.