Photo by Sam Thiel SMSU’s Sarina Smith goes up for a kill during their NSIC Tournament match against Upper Iowa University on Wednesday. The Mustangs defeated the Peacocks 3-1.

MARSHALL – The Upper Iowa University Peacocks finished their NSIC Tournament Quarterfinal match against the No. 4 Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball team with a total of 41 kills. On the other side of the court, the Peacocks had no answer for outside hitter Taylor Reiss, who recorded a season-high 31 kills en route to a 3-1 opening round victory for the Mustangs on Wednesday night.

The Mustangs tallied 72 kills on the night as a team and posted a hitting percentage of .320. Brooke Borchardt and Sarina Smith each added 13 kills while Kaylee Burmeister chipped in 11 to aid the SMSU attack. Megan Larson led in set assists with 61.

Reiss said their key on the offensive end was their ball movement as well as their movement from their hitters throughout the night.

“I think we moved the ball around a lot; I don’t think one person was hitting in the same spot the whole time and I think that it’s hard to defend a team that’s moving the ball around and hitting in different spots,” Reiss said. “Megan also does a great job of locating the ball and getting us the ball where she needs to get it.”

The Mustangs raced out to a strong start in the first set, building an 8-2 lead in the opening minutes. The Peacocks would answer back, cutting the deficit to one at 12-11, but SMSU countered with a 4-0 run of its own to push the advantage to 16-11.

UIU would continue to hang tough, bringing it to within three at 21-18, but a 4-1 run by the Mustangs closed things out to give SMSU a 25-19 first set victory.

The second set was similar to its opening counterpart, as the Mustangs got out to a 7-4 start. SMSU continued to add to its lead in the next few minutes, using a 5-1 spurt to go up 12-5.

Just like they did in the first set, the Peacocks would hold their ground in the middle portion of the set, going on another run to cut the deficit to 15-12. The three-point advantage would stay put for the Mustangs throughout the majority of the set, and SMSU used another strong finish to earn a 25-19 second set win and taking a 2-0 match lead.

Another solid start thanks to a personal serving run by Burmeister gave the Mustangs a 5-0 lead early in Set 3. The Peacocks would come back and tie things up at 9-9 and after a brief run by SMSU, UIU cut the deficit to 13-11.

The Peacocks stuck around, however, ultimately cutting SMSU’s lead to one at 20-19 before knotting the score at 22-22. UIU brought it to match point at 24-23, but a big kill from Reiss tied it back up at 24. The Peacocks would keep the Mustangs at bay, taking Set 3 26-24 and forcing a fourth set.

Unlike the first three sets, Set 4 would be tighter to start, as SMSU held a slim 6-4 lead. But then the Mustangs took control and never looked back, going on a 5-1 run to take an 11-5 lead. SMSU continued its strong play on the offensive end, using another burst to build a 17-8 lead before seeing its first double digit advantage of the night at 21-11. The Mustangs then shut UIU down the rest of the way, taking Set 4 25-14 and the match in four sets.

SMSU coach Terry Culhane said he felt they did a lot of good things but found it tough to get into a groove on the offensive end.

“At this point, when you’re in the conference tournament, all it’s about is trying to get to the next round. We were able to do that; I thought we did a lot of good things but it was hard at times for us to gain a rhythm offensively as poorly as we served,” Culhane said. “I thought we let them hang around enough in Set 3 and they’re too good of a team to think that the other side will make errors so that we can finish the game. It’s a tough conference and part of being in that position is being mentally tough and not being afraid to make plays.”

Dani Potter led the way defensively for SMSU with 20 digs while Larson, Burmeister and Erin Corrigan all had 13. As a team, the Mustangs held the Peacocks to just a .181 hitting percentage, including a .027 mark in the fourth set.

Culhane said their key on defense was blocking and defending well, especially in the fourth set, but felt they made easier plays harder than they were.

“I thought early and at the end we blocked well. I though in Set 4 we defended well; they only hit .027 in that set and we almost hit .300. Our sideout percentage was good in Set 4 and I thought we dug balls well,” Culhane said. “My only concern of what we do at times is making easy plays hard, and we did that too many times. We didn’t communicate or perform the skill on easy balls and at our level, people are going to make good plays and take good swings, but there were a lot of plays where we could’ve done a better job on that side of it.”

SMSU (26-3) will face Augustana University in the semifinal round on Saturday at noon in St. Paul. Reiss said their biggest takeaway will be cleaning up their mistakes on serving and continuing to solidify their defensive presence.

“We need to go into practice and for sure focus on serving and not miss that many serves because it’s hard to win a game when you miss that many, so right now I think that’s our main focus and we always continue to focus on defense and becoming a better defensive team,” Reiss said.

UIU 19 19 26 14

SMSU 25 25 24 25

Individual Statistics

Serving (Ace): SMSU (Burmeister 3 aces; Potter 2 aces; Larson, Hjerleid 1 ace).

Kills: SMSU (Reiss 31; Borchardt 13; Burmeister 11; Smith 9; Reinhardt 7).

Digs: SMSU (Potter 20; Larson, Burmeister, Corrigan 13).

Set Assists: SMSU (Larson 61).

Blocks: SMSU (Smith 4; Borchardt, Reiss 3).