Box Score
MARSHALL, Minn. – The No. 9 Southwest Minnesota State volleyball team will advance to the NSIC tournament semifinals this weekend with a sweep over the sixth seeded, Wayne State, on Tuesday night.
Third seed SMSU advances to the tournament 22-7 overall to face second seed, Northern State, on Friday at 5 p.m. in the Romano Gymnasium in Duluth, Minn.
No. 9 SMSU swept WSC (25-17, 28-26, 25-21) to advance to the second round of the NSIC tournament in which Minnesota Duluth, seeded first, will host.
Taylor Reiss led the match with 18 kills and 13 digs for her third consecutive double-double and
Angela Young added 15 kills and 10 digs.
Kaylee Burmeister led the match with 25 digs to extend the Mustangs winning streak to nine matches.
SMSU opened the match with three unanswered kills from Reiss. The teams' battled early on before Young gave the Mustangs their largest lead in the first set after going for four consecutive kills to put the Mustangs up 18-12. With the help of the Mustangs' strong offense,
Meg Schmidt was able to help extend to lead to 20-12 before the Wildcats attempted to close in on the Mustangs. With the Mustangs at set-point, the Mustangs committed two errors to bring the Wildcats to 24-17 before
Sarina Smith ended the set, 25-17.
The Mustangs fell behind in the opening of set two with a kill delivered by the Wildcats and a Mustang error. The Mustangs dropped to an early three-point deficit at 3-6 dealt by three kills from Alyssa Ballenger. The Mustangs, however, were able to tie the set at 7-7 with a kill from Young. With Burmeister at the line, the Mustangs were able to regain their first lead of the set with a service ace, error, and a kill each from Reiss and
Lexi Ferrell. With the score at 13-9, the Wildcats called a timeout and returned to the court to tie the set back at 13-13. The set went back-and-forth and extended into extra points before the Wildcats committed a service error and Young delivered a kill to end the set, 28-26.
With the Mustangs up 2-0 in the match, they held a 19-18 lead in set three before going on a 5-0 with
Erin Corrigan at the line. The Mustangs delivered kills from Young and Smith and a critical service ace to bring the set to set-point. The Wildcats clung in the game going for three unanswered points a kill and two Mustang errors to bring the score to 24-21. With the victory in sight, Smith ended the set, 25-21 to advance the Mustangs in the post-season.
The third seeded Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs will take on the number two seeded Northern State on Friday at 5 p.m. at the Romano Gymnasium in Duluth, Minn. for an NSIC tournament semifinal match.
