#3 Southwest Minnesota State 3 #1 Wayne State 2
#3 Southwest Minnesota State rallied for a five-set win over #1 ranked Wayne State College in Northern Sun Conference volleyball played Saturday afternoon in Marshall, Minnesota. Scores of the match were 20-25, 25-23, 19-25, 25-19 and 15-7. The host Mustangs improve to 16-2 and 8-1 in the NSIC while Wayne State falls to 16-2 overall and 7-2 in league play.
The Wildcats won the first set 25-20 thanks to stellar defense, forcing Southwest Minnesota State into nine attack errors while WSC notched 12 kills to get off to a solid start. The Mustangs came back strong in the second set and pounded out 19 kills to top WSC 25-23, evening the match at one set apiece.
Wayne State regained momentum in the third set and dominated the Mustangs as WSC had 14 kills with just one attack error while SMSU had seven attack errors in the Wildcats' 25-19 win to give WSC a 2-1 set lead. However, the host Mustangs caught fire attacking the ball, recording 21 kills while hitting .346 in the fourth set for a 25-19 win and then the Mustangs used 13 kills and hit .611 in the fifth and deciding set to defeat the Wildcats 15-7, winning the match in five sets
Southwest Minnesota State hit .280 in the match compared to .250 for Wayne State. The Mustangs held an 81-58 advantage in kills over the Wildcats. SMSU had 28 attack errors to just 12 for the Wildcats. WSC had nine blocks to five for SMSU while the Mustangs had 95 digs to 64 for WSC.
Senior Jennifer Hefner led the Wildcats in hitting with 18 kills followed by Tali Fredrickson with 15 kills. Junior libero Leigh Connot had 23 digs followed by freshman McKenna Reagan with 12 and senior setter Diedra Artz was credited with 45 set assists.
For Southwest Minnesota State, Mary Groth pounded out a match-high 28 kills followed by Devin Diedrich with 18 kills. Kenzie Niesche had 26 digs and Brooke Burmeister added 21 while setter Cara Carson was credited with 74 set assists.
Wayne State will be on the road again next weekend in Northern Sun Conference play, visiting Minnesota, Crookston Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. and MSU Moorhead Saturday at 4:00 p.m.
