MARSHALL, Minn. – The No. 4 SMSU volleyball team came back from down two sets to stun the No. 22 Northern State Wolves in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference volleyball on Friday evening at the SMSU PE Gym.

With the win, SMSU runs its streak to 12 matches, the longest win streak since the 2017 season when SMSU won 16 games in a row. The Mustangs are now 12-0 on the season and 3-0 in NSIC play.

NSU drops to 9-2 overall and 1-2 in NSIC play.

Leah Jones led the Mustang offensive unit with a career-high 19 kills on .250 hitting while tallying three blocks and an ace. Ashley Peltier followed behind with a career-high 17 kills on .452 hitting with a dig and seven block assists. Saari Kuehl and Emma VanHeel recorded 15 and 12 kills, respectively, while Karli Arkell put down 11 kills on .409 hitting. 

Sydney Thein logged a double-double setting a career-high 64 assists with 12 digs and four kills. McKenzie Tolk anchored the defense with 24 digs while supporting the attack with five assists. Tolk is just seven digs from reaching 1,000 in her career.

Natalia Szybinska led NSU with 15 kills on .267 hitting. Abby Brooks followed behind with 11 kills while Hanna Thompson rounded out the attackers with 10 kills.

SMSU out-hit NSU .280-.191, tallying 78 kills to the Wolves 56.

Set one saw the Wolves jump out to an 8-1 lead early before a spark on the Mustangs end pushed the score back to 11-7 in favor of SMSU. NSU would pursue a 8-4 run to take an eight-point lead. The Mustangs tried to come back but ultimately fell short.
 
Set two was a back-and-forth battle to the very end. The teams traded points until a score of 11-11 saw a mini-run for the Mustangs to take a 14-11 lead. A 6-3 run for the Wolves again led to a tie score before NSU took a three-point lead. Seven more tie scores led to an eventual set win for the Wolves off a SMSU attacking error and kill by Victoria Persha.
 
Set three saw a swing in momentum for the SMSU camp. A Mustang killing-spree driven by attacks from Jones and Peltier sparked an SMSU lead at 13-8. NSU responded by taking advantage of SMSU attacking errors and tallying points from Szybinska to cut the SMSU lead to three. The Mustangs tallied five of the final seven points to finally claim victory 25-19.
 
The fourth set was all SMSU. The Mustang blocking unit came alive, securing five blocks in the fourth game while limiting NSU to .091 hitting. SMSU logged 16 kills on .361 hitting to carry a wave of momentum into the final set.
 
The Mustangs carried their offensive attack from the fourth set into set five, swinging for 12 kills on .348 hitting. SMSU jumped out to a 7-1 lead and never looked back in cruising to the 15-11 win to complete the comeback.
 
UP NEXT
 
SMSU continues home play tomorrow with a match against MSU Moorhead at 2 p.m.