MARSHALL, Minn. – The Southwest Minnesota State volleyball team pushed its winning streak to five in a row with a 3-0 victory over MSU Moorhead on Friday night inside the PE Gym. The Mustangs won by scores of 25-15, 27-25 and 25-10.
 
With the victory, SMSU improves to 18-2 overall, 10-2 NSIC, while MSUM dropped its 10^th straight match and is now 5-15 overall, 2-10 NSIC.
 
Alisa Bengen dished out a match-high 37 assists to pace the Mustangs and in the process became the 10^th SMSU player to reach 2,000 career assists. She reached the mark with her 10^th assist of the match in the first set.
 
Emma VanHeel recorded a match-high 14 kills, while hitting .520 to lead the Mustang offensive attack. Meg Schmidt added 10 kills, Saari Kuehl chipped in with six kills, while Brooklyn Kusler closed with five kills.
 
Rachel Fink notched 10 digs with teammate Natalie Rolbiecki adding nine digs for the Mustangs. VanHeel and Bengen both had three block assists, while Karli Arkell had two block solos and one block assist in the victory.
 
SMSU finished the match hitting. 330 with six blocks, while limiting MSUM to just .129 and five blocks.
 
Abby Thompson led the Dragons with nine kills and hit a team-high .438.
 
The opening set was tied at 8-8 before Bengen recorded an ace serve and was followed by a Schmidt kill to put the Mustangs in front for the remainder of the set. SMSU led 18-15 before a Kusler kill sparked 7-0 run to close out the opening set.
 
Set two was much closer with MSUM holding a lead for much of the set and twice had set point to tie the match at one apiece. SMSU trailed 17-14 before VanHeel recorded a pair of kills to help tie the set at 17-17. MSUM would later take a 24-23 lead before VanHeel once again came through with a kill to tie the score at 24. Moments later VanHeel racked up another kill to tie the score at 25. Following an attack error by the Dragons, the Mustangs would score the clinching point behind a VanHeel kill to win 27-25.
 
VanHeel finished set two with seven kills on 13 attacks.
 
Set three was all SMSU as the Mustangs hit .476 with 12 kills and limited the Dragons to a .000 hitting percentage on 22 attacks. SMSU jumped out to a 5-1 lead and eventually built the advantage to 14-5 following a Bengen service ace. SMSU never looked back in taking the third set and defeating MSUM for the 22^nd straight time dating back to 2006.
 
SMSU continues the weekend homestand on Saturday with a 4 p.m. match versus Northern State.