SMSU Athletics

October 31, 2013 – Hoof Prints Article

Hello Mustang Fans!

The action continues in the SMSU Department of Athletics as we partner with the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL) to host section volleyball and football play-offs. Section volleyball has been underway in the R/A Facility and continues today and Saturday. Here is the upcoming schedule:

Thursday, October 31 in the R/A Facility:

Section 3A North Semi-Finals
Minneota vs Central Minnesota Christian @ 6:00 PM
Tracy-Milroy-Balaton vs Murray County Central @ 7:30 PM

Saturday, November 2 in R/A Facility:
Section 3AA Finals
Section 3A Finals

On Friday, November 1, we will host four section football games at the Schwan Regional Event Center. Here is the schedule:

Section 3 (9 man) #1 Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley vs #2 Mountain Lake Area @ 12:00 PM
Section 5A #1 Dawson-Boyd vs #2 Wabasso @ 2:30 PM
Section 3A #1 Adrian vs #3 Tracy-Milroy-Balaton PM
Section 3AA #1 Jackson County Central vs #2 Maple River @ 7:30 PM

The R/A Facility and Schwan Regional Event Center are great venues to host section competition. SMSU and the Department of Athletics are proud to host our area high schools as they look to move on in the MSHSL State Playoffs. Congratulations and good luck to all the teams who will be competing at SMSU this Thursday, Friday and Saturday!

It takes a great effort by many departments at SMSU to successfully host playoff competition. A big thank you to Rolly Muller, Assistant Athletic Director, and the entire SMSU Staff for all the hard work and dedication during MSHSL State Playoffs.

This past Sunday, our student-athletes and coaches were out in the Marshall Community for the annual SMSU Work-a-thon. As a member of NCAA Division II Athletics, SMSU is committed to providing our student-athletes opportunities in building character and creating a positive collegiate experience focusing on learning, service, passion, resourcefulness and balance.

The SMSU Work-a-thon is a civic engagement event providing community members with help getting those fall chores done before winter hits southwestern Minnesota. Our teams helped to rake leaves, clean garages and perform miscellaneous tasks for Marshall community members and businesses. Thank you to our student-athletes and coaches who participated in last week’s service project. 
 
For all the latest information on the SMSU Department of Athletics go to SMSUmustangs.com.

This Week in SMSU Athletics

The SMSU Soccer team (14-1-1, 10-1-1 NSIC) moved up from #25 this week to #19 in this week’s National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA)/Continental Tire National College top 25. With a tie to MSU Mankato last Sunday, Southwest also moved into second in this week’s NCAA Division II Central Region rankings behind MSU.

The Mustangs went 1-0-1 last week recording a 3-0 win over Concordia-St. Paul and a 0-0 double overtime tie with #4 Minnesota State. The Mustangs will play their last regular season home game today at the Schwan Regional Event Center against Wayne State (1-14-1, 1-11-1 NSIC) at 3:00 p.m. SMSU will conclude the regular season by traveling to Sioux Falls, SD on Sunday to play Augustana College at 1:00 p.m.

The #8 SMSU Volleyball team (15-5, 10-2 NSIC) went 2-1 this past week with victories over Bemidji State and
Minnesota Crookston after being upset last Tuesday by the University of Sioux Falls. The Mustangs dropped two
spots in this week’s AVCA national ranking. Concordia-St. Paul remained the No. 1 team in the ranking for the fifth
consecutive week and earned all 48 first-place votes and 1,200 total points.

Central Missouri, which held the No. 3 spot and earned two first-place votes in last week's poll fell to No. 5 with its
first loss of the season this weekend. Tampa (1,149) remained No. 2 for the second consecutive week, while
Minnesota Duluth (1,085) inched up to No. 3. BYU-Hawai'i (1,046) and Central Missouri (981) rounded out the top
5. West Texas A&M (913) and Nebraska-Kearney (869) came in just ahead of the Mustangs and their 838 total
points. Wingate (762) and Western Washington (718) rounded out the top 10. Other Northern Sun Intercollegiate
Conference schools ranked in the poll were No. 18 Wayne State (Neb.) and No.23 Northern State.

The Mustangs will head north this weekend competing at St. Cloud State on Friday at 7:00 p.m, before traveling to
#3 UMD for a 4:00 p.m. match on Saturday. A win on Saturday in Duluth will play big as the Mustangs head into
post-season play.

The SMSU Football team (4-4 NSIC, 2-2 NSIC South) is coming off an exciting 52-48 win over UIU last week in Fayette. Saturday’s contest will be the last home contest of the season as they will welcome Winona State University (5-3 NSIC, 3-1 NSIC South) to Mattke Field at the Schwan Regional Event Center for a 1:00 p.m. kick-off.

SMSU enters the game tied for sixth in the conference standings, while WSU is tied for fourth place. The Mustangs are looking to snap a four-game losing streak to WSU and earn just the third victory over WSU since 1993. Saturday, the SMSU Football team will pay tribute to fifteen seniors as they play their last game at the Schwan Regional Event Center. The players include JJ Bobrowicz, Tate Bunkers, Cody Condon, Anthony Dean, Kyle Hahn, Adam Iversen, Kyle Johnson, Justin Knakmuhs, Dashawn Miller, Brandon Puffer, Lance Schuveiller, Alex Sedrel, Jake Thiel, Britt Wickett and Brad Wiest.

The SMSU Women's and Men's Cross Country teams finished in eighth place out of 13 teams, while the women's team finished 11th out of 15 teams, at the NSIC championships held last Saturday at Yankton Trails Park in Sioux Falls, SD.

Augustana won the men's team championship with 18 points, well ahead of second place Sioux Falls, which finished with 84 points. The SMSU men's team finished with 218 points led by Trent Smith who finished in 24th place out of the field of 111.

Minnesota Duluth won the women's team title with 50 points, while Augustana was second with 67 points. The SMSU women recorded 369 points led by Amanda Grengs who finished the race in 63rd place. Both SMSU teams will return to competition on Saturday, November 2, in the NCAA region championships, which will also be held at Yankton Trails Park in Sioux Falls.

The SMSU Men’s Basketball team chalked up bragging rights over the Alumni team last Saturday with a 78-64 win on Andy Wiersma Day at SMSU. William Giddings led the team with a game-high 21 points, while former Mustang, Jordan Miller, ended the contest with 18 points for the Alumni. SMSU will continue exhibition play this Sunday hosting Wisconsin-Eau Claire starting at 4:00 p.m. in the R/A Facility.

Mustang Wrestling is in action this weekend as they head over to Brookings, SD on Sunday to compete in the Daktronics Open with the tournament starting on 9:00 a.m.

On Monday, November 4, the SMSU Women’s Basketball team will take the floor in an exhibition game versus St. Catherine at 7:00 p.m. in the R/A Facility.

I would like to wish all of our teams the best of luck this weekend!

Go Mustangs!

Congratulations to Kory Grant and Rick Haberman, who both provided the correct answer (at the same time) to last week’s Mustang Hoofprint’s Trivia Question: In 2008, SMSU defeated Upper Iowa 38-31 on a last second hail mary pass, who was the quarterback that through the pass to win the game? Josh Shudlick through the hail mary pass to Sean Patrick O’Leary leading the Mustangs to victory over the Peacocks 38-31.

Hoofprints Trivia Question (please put this in a box with the title on top)

When was the last time the SMSU Women’s Soccer team qualified for the NSIC Tournament?

The first person to email me at MustangHoofPrints@SMSU.edu with the correct answer to this question will receive an SMSU t-shirt.