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SMSU Volleyball: SMSU ends season in loss to CSP

SMSU’s Kaylee Burmeister goes up for the ball during the Mustangs’ match against Concordia-St. Paul on Saturday.

St. Paul – The Mustangs had 39 digs as a team in three sets but couldn’t find enough offense against a tough Concordia-St. Paul defense as the top seeded Golden Bears defeated Southwest Minnesota State 25-23, 25-12, 25-21 on Saturday night in the Gangelhoff Center.

SMSU coach Terry Culhane gives a lot of credit to Concordia.

“I want to give credit to Brady and Concordia. I thought their kids just played with a lot of urgency and a lot of desperation,” said Culhane. “I thought the biggest difference in the game was their ability to defend. They made it difficult for us to score and our team I think got frustrated. I think every long point went on in this match, they won. That’s credit to them. Those kids grinded for everything and that’s why they’re winning in an extremely difficult region and we wish them luck next weekend.”

Taylor Reiss, Eisha Oden, and Megan Larson were each recognized post match for being named to this year’s NCAA Central Region All-Tournament team. In the Mustangs’ three matches, Reiss and Oden led the Mustangs attack with 53 and 44 kills respectively.

Sarah Parker finishes her Mustang volleyball career ranked fifth all-time in career hitting percentage (.316) while Oden leaves the program in first place in that category (.347).

Parker knows she learned a lot in her time at SMSU.

“SMSU volleyball has given me more than just volleyball,” said Parker. “They’re my second home. They’ve taught me a lot of things, the coaches in this program. What it means to be a good person, what it means to learn from your mistakes, how to get through hard times.”

Oden also knows that her career at SMSU was special.

“Honestly, this was probably the best decision I made four years ago in my entire life,” said Oden. “This coaching staff has done so much for each and every single one of our players. I will cherish that. We’ve told our younger kids to cherish that.”

SMSU defeated Wayne State and Augustana on its way to the championship match hitting .264 as a team and 16.4 digs per set in the tournament.

The Mustangs came out strong in the championship match as they raced to a 9-3 lead and looked like they might easily earn its first opening set win of the tournament. CSP’s defense made it difficult for SMSU to pull away however as the Golden Bears put together a 10-2 run to take a 13-11 lead before the Mustangs could respond. The set would remain tightly contested through the finish as the game was all square at 23-23 but back-to-back kills from Emma Lange gave the Golden Bears the first set win 25-23.

SMSU again struggled to find an answer for tough defending from Concordia-St. Paul finishing the second set with a negative hitting percentage as the Golden Bears took a 2-0 lead with a 25-12 win in set two

The two sides went back and forth again to start the third as the set was tied at 11-11 but the Golden Bears would put together an 8-1 run to go up 19-12. SMSU then went on a 4-1 run of its own to trip the CSP lead to 20-16. CSP responded with a 4-1 run to give themselves match point at 24-17. SMSU fought back to fend off four consecutive match points but a final kill from Lange gave CSP the 25-21 win in the set and a 3-0 victory.

The Mustangs (28-6) finish the season with the most wins for an SMSU team since 2012 (30) and will look ahead to next season after finishing the season atop the Northern Sun Conference.

Culhane knows the seniors will be missed, but says they will move forward.

“We are losing good kids, but we have a lot of good student-athletes still on our team. We’ll continue to work hard and try to replace these guys,” said Culhane. “That’s part of the whole process. They’ve kind of paid their dues and now there are opportunities for other kids to step in and go forward. We’ll do what we believe in, and that’s just work hard, do it the right way and that’s how we’ll go about it.”

Content courtesy

of SMSU Athletic

Communications

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