MARSHALL, Minn.- The No. 5-ranked Southwest Minnesota State volleyball team (23-6) fell to the No. 16-ranked Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs 25-14, 25-15, 21-25, and 25-21 on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the NSIC Tournament inside the SMSU PE Gym.
 
The sixth-seeded Bulldogs will move on to face the second-seeded Concordia-St. Paul Golden Bears at 7 p.m., on Saturday, in Wayne, Neb.
 
Leah Jones racked up 15 kills in the loss, hitting .273 and picking up a block. Saari Kuehl added 10 kills, while Brooklyn Kusler tallied seven kills. Alisa Bengen finished the night with 34 assists, 11 digs, and six kills. Karli Arkell led the defense with four blocks, while Emma VanHeel pitched in three blocks. McKenzie Tolk patrolled the back-line, finishing with a team-best 13 digs.
 
The Mustangs finished the match with eight blocks against the 10 of UMD, but the Bulldogs took advantage of seven aces and eight Mustang service errors to come away with the victory.  
 
The first two sets were completely dominated by the Bulldogs' play. Although SMSU scored five of the first seven points, UMD did not back down, scoring seven of the next 12 points to even the score at 9-9. Both squads battled to 14-14, but the Bulldogs eventually pulled away by scoring 11 of the final 14 points backed by Cianna Selbitschka and Grace Daak.
 
The Mustangs tried to keep with the Bulldogs early into set two, battling to a tie score of 4-4. UMD would pull away with confidence scoring eight of the next 12 points to set themselves in a good place for the remainder of the set. The Bulldogs would use SMSU attacking errors and kills by Daak and Samantha Paulsen to seal the second set victory by a score of 25-15. 
 
The Bulldogs scored the first four points of the fourth set, leading wire-to-wire en route to the four-set victory.

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The Mustangs will now play the waiting game, with their fate in the hands of the NCAA Regional Ranking Committee. The NCAA Selection Show will be streamed online on Monday, Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m. (CT) on NCAA.com.