WAYNE, Neb. - The No. 15 Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball team fell to No. 18 Wayne State College in five sets for the second time this season on Saturday.

SMSU held a two sets to one lead, but Wayne State won the fourth set and came back from behind in the fifth set to win 25-22, 24-26, 20-25, 25-22 and 15-13.

"It was disappointing," SMSU head coach Terry Culhane said. "We've played Wayne twice and both have gone five games. We were up 12-9 in game five and we let it slip away from us. We needed to take care of things and we didn't."

WSC improves to 23-4 (11-2 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference) with the win, while the Mustangs fall to 19-7 (9-5 NSIC). In the previous meeting between the two schools, SMSU also lost the fifth set by a score of 15-13.

"We struggled a little bit at the end and couldn't put things away," Culhane said. "When you lose 15-13, that means we're talking about just one play that needed to go your way."

Brooke Burmeister had terrific match for the Mustangs in the loss. She hit home a career-high 26 kills to go along with a .458 hitting percentage.

Devin Diedrich and Tory Brouwer each added 19 kills, while Sarah Graf had 54 set assists and Kenzie Niesche had 37 digs.

"Brooke Burmeister was outstanding," Culhane said. "She went above and beyond the call of duty. I was also really pleased with how Devin, Tory and Kenzie all played."

The Mustangs are still without freshman Mary Groth, who was second on the team in kills when she injured her wrist in practice Oct. 15.

Culhane said Groth will see the doctor in the middle of the week, but added that it's hard to tell if and when Groth will return.

Culhane said he's pleased with how some of his players have picked up their play with Groth on the sidelines. Still, he said it's impossible for SMSU to replace what Groth provides when she's out on the court playing the net.

"Obviously when you lose an impact player like that you need players to step up," Culhane said. "I thought Brooke, Tori and Devin were really good. I thought they played at a high level. The problem is we need five players hitting the ball and we weren't able to do that. That's our lack of depth situations, which was the frustrating part of losing."

The Mustangs will host Minnesota-Duluth Friday and Bemidji State University Saturday before taking on No. 10 Minnesota State University-Mankato Nov. 7.

SMSU 22 26 25 22 13

WSC 25 24 20 25 15

SMSU INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Service Aces: Crissi Schewe 2, Brooke Burmeister 2.

Kills: Burmeister 26, Toy Brouwer 19, Devin Diedrick 19, Schewe 11.

Digs: Kenzie Niesche 37, Brittany Wenzel 32, Sara Graf 16, Schewe 14, Ashley King 13.

Set Assists: Graf 54, Cara Carson 14.

Blocks: Brigetta Berg 2, Diedrich 5, Brouwer 1, Graf 2, Burmeister 3.