SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - The No. 11 Southwest Minnesota State women's volleyball team travels to Sioux Falls on Tuesday for a mid-week conference match-up at 6 p.m in the Stewart Center. Tuesday's match marks the second contest between SMSU (13-6, 8-3 NSIC) and USF (12-7, 7-4 NSIC) this season. SMSU swept USF in the last contest on Sept. 11 in Marshall.
SMSU Notes
SMSU returns to play after from splitting the weekend. SMSU took down No. 5 Minnesota Duluth on Friday night in four-sets and fell 3-1 to St. Cloud State on Saturday.
Taylor Reiss tied the match-high and recorded a team-best with 16 kills, followed by
Meg Schmidt with 13 in the victory over UMD.
Kaylee Burmeister recorded four service aces, Reiss led with five blocks,
Emma Thomssen had 37 assists and Reiss recorded a team-high 13 digs.
Angela Young recorded a career high .455 hitting percentage and Thomssen recorded a career-high five kills.
The Mustangs fell to SCSU despite Reiss recording a team-high 20 kills followed by Schmidt with a career-high 16 kills and Young with 10. Burmeister recorded four services aces.Thomssen recorded 29 assists and
Payton Hjerleid recorded 22 for a career-high. Burmeister led with 22 digs and
Zoe Lier recorded a career-high six digs.
The Mustangs dropped to No. 11 in the latest AVCA Top-25 poll released on Monday and Reiss leads the nation in kills per set (5.56), points per set (6.04), and total kills (389) for the third consecutive week.
Sioux Falls Notes
Sioux Falls fell to No. 5 Minnesota Duluth on Saturday after SMSU defeated UMD 3-1 on Friday night. Prior to the loss, USF maintained a four-match winning streak. The Cougars are led by Bria Barfnecht with 235 kills, followed by Lexi Scott (202), Averey Yaksich (186), Makenna Rockeman (174), and Abby Feyereisen (108). Krista Goerger paces the Cougars with 728 assists with 10.25 assists per set. Kassandra Springer has recorded 223 digs this season with 3.23 digs per set.
Series History
Southwest Minnesota State leads the series 15-1 which began in 1981. The Mustangs only loss occurred on Oct. 22, 2013 with a five-set loss at home. SMSU has swept USF in nine of the 16 matches. This is the second contest between the teams this season, the first occurred on Sept. 11 with a 3-0 Mustang victory (25-17, 25-21, 25-19).
SMSU finishes the weekend with a road-series at Minot State (9-11, 3-8 NSIC) on Friday at 6 p.m. and UMary (3-16, 0-11 NSIC) on Saturday for an 11 a.m. match-up.
