Box Score
DENVER, Colo. – The Southwest Minnesota State volleyball team (5-2) advanced to the Colorado Premier Challenge championship tonight with a sweep over Missouri Western State (25-17, 25-9, 25-22) this afternoon.
The Mustangs were the winner of their pool on Friday to advance to the gold bracket to play Missouri Western State, the winner of their collective pool. The Mustangs will face Concordia-St. Paul in the championship at 8 p.m. CDT at Regis Fieldhouse tonight. SMSU is the reigning champions having taken first place last year. SMSU finished in second place in 2007, 2010, and 2016. This is the Mustangs fifth championship match appearance.
The Mustangs were led by
Taylor Reiss, with 12 kills and 10 digs.
Angela Young and
Sarina Smith added 11 and 9 kills to aid the Mustangs victory. Smith hit .421 and
Lexi Ferrell hit .714 to bring the Mustangs hitting percentage to .317 overall.
The Mustangs led the entire second set and went on an 8-0 run at the end of the set, capsulated by three-consecutive kills delivered by
Meg Schmidt.
The Mustangs rallied in the third set after going down 19-16. The Mustangs were able to regain the lead with three crucial kills from Young. MWSU, now 5-2, had 31 kills as a team compared to SMSU's 41 collective kills.
Southwest Minnesota State (ranked No. 9) will take on Concordia-St. Paul (ranked No. 2) tonight in the championship match. The Golden Bears are 5-2 in the season and 1-2 in the Colorado Premier Challenge after falling to Texas A&M-Commerce on Friday afternoon.
The championship match against Concordia-St. Paul will begin at 8 p.m. CDT at Regis Fieldhouse.
