MOORHEAD, Minn. On Friday night, the No. 7-ranked team in Division II volleyball, Southwest Minnesota State University traveled to Moorhead to face the Minnesota State University Moorhead volleyball team. The Mustangs defeated the Dragons in three straight sets, 26-24, 25-12, and 25-23.
SMSU improves to 12-5 on the season and 7-2 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play. MSUM is now 7-10 on the season and 2-7 in NSIC play.
Junior Abby Thissen from SMSU led all players in kills with 16 while hitting .429 on 28 attack attempts. Junior Whitney Burmeister led all players with 21 digs. For the Dragons, junior
Kaitlin VanWinkle led the way with 10 kills and six total blocks. Junior
Casie Baer and senior
Sam Sullivan had 15 assists in the loss. Sophomore
Katie Meyers had 14 digs to lead MSUM.
The first set was tightly contested for the opening part until the Mustangs scored six consecutive points to make the score 19-15. Kenzie Beekman had two service aces in the stretch for SMSU. The Dragons fought back and tied the score at 22 after two attack errors from SMSU. The score was also tied at 24 before Thissen and Sarah Parker put away two kills for SMSU and took the set 26-24.
SMSU jumped out quickly in the second set thanks to ten straight points and led 11-2 early. The Mustangs controlled the set throughout and won 25-12 going into the break.
In the third set, the Dragons scored the first four points, partly thanks to two kills from
Kaitlin VanWinkle. The Mustangs answered with four points of their own to tie the score at 4-4. The back-and-forth set was tied at 23 before kills from Eisha Oden and Thissen gave the set to the Mustangs and the match 3-0.
MSUM will play again tomorrow against Sioux Falls. The first serve is set for 5 p.m
