Photo courtesy of SMSU Athletic Communications SMSU’s Sarina Smith connects on a swing during their NCAA Central Region quarterfinal match against Concordia-St. Paul on Thursday. The Mustangs fell to the Golden Bears 3-2.

KEARNEY, Neb. – Southwest Minnesota State, the No. 5 seed, had its season come to a close Thursday with a heart-breaking, back-and-forth, 3-2 loss to No. 4 seed and defending NCAA champion Concordia-St. Paul in the quarterfinals of the NCAA Central Region Tournament played at the Health & Sports Center on the campus of the University of Nebraska-Kearney.

CSP, which improves to 23-8 overall, won the match by scores of 22-25, 25-22, 25-16, 22-26 and 16-14.

“I thought it was a hard-fought match, we had peaks and valleys,” SMSU coach Terry Culhane said. “Volleyball’s a unique sport. There aren’t many sports where the difference is as small as it is. Unfortunately, we were on the bad side of that.”

SMSU, making its 15th straight NCAA Tournament appearance, closes the season 23-9 overall. It was the final match for Mustang seniors and All-Americans, Kaylee Burmeister and Taylor Reiss.

Reiss said despite CSP’s ability to defend well, they never gave up as a group and played right to the final point.

“As a team, we came into this game knowing that Concordia is a good team every time we play them,” Reiss said. “We knew it was a team that is always going to defend. I think we battled the whole time. There was never a point where we threw in the towel.”

Thursday’s victory for the Golden Bears was their third of the season over the Mustangs in four matches.

“Each of us makes adjustments,” Culhane said. “We always know when we play Concordia that we’re going to have our hands full. They’re well-coached. I thought they really defended well, but I’ve said that (about Concordia) for a number of years.”

The Mustangs jumped to an early 5-1 lead over the Golden Bears in Set 1. SMSU fought to keep that lead as CSP closed in making it a one-point set at as SMSU led 12-11. SMSU warded off CSP as Reiss finished the set 25-22.

CSP responded as they took off in Set 2 with the score locked at 14-14. CSP went on CSP’s Sara Macek went for six unanswered kills to take a 20-14 lead. The Mustangs were able to piece together to make it a three-point set at 23-20 before CSP finished the set with a kill from Brooklyn Lewis.

CSP took control in Set 3 to hold the Mustangs at 17-8 before the Mustangs attempted to make a run and close in on the Golden Bears. CSP capitalized on the set victory with a 4-0 run to end set three with two service aces at 25-16.

With CSP leading the match 2-1, the Mustangs fought to stay in the match their first largest lead at 11-8. The Golden Bears rallied to bring the set to 14-14. The Mustangs took off to create a four-point lead at 20-16. CSP kept with the match to come within one-point of SMSU. The Mustangs were able to maintain the lead as Young delivered a kill to end Set 4, 25-22.

In Set 5, CSP jumped out to a 4-0 lead, but SMSU battled back to tie the set at 8-8 following an attack error by CSP. The Golden Bears then reeled off three straight points and later held a 12-9 advantage, but a kill by the Mustangs’ Angela Young and a double block by Sarina Smith and Emma Thomssen cut the score to 12-11.

CSP would later have match point at 14-12, but SMSU rallied again behind a kill from Reiss and a solo block by Reiss to tie the score at 14. CSP unfortunately, would have the answer one more time, using a kill from Brooklyn Lewis and a ball-handling error by SMSU to win the set and match.

Young led the Mustangs hitting .314 with 20 kills, while Reiss added 20 kills and finished with eight digs.

Thomssen dished out 44 assists and had 11 digs, while Burmeister led the defense with 27 digs.

Burmeister added that they had to be strong in both serving and defending in order to put themselves in a chance to win.

“We knew going in that we always had to serve tough and defend hard because obviously that wins games,” Burmeister said. “I thought we battled hard.”

SMSU closed the match hitting .220 with 56 kills and 16 errors, while CSP hit .230 with 75 kills and 31 errors.

Concordia-St. Paul will advance to the semifinals tonight at 7:30 p.m.

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Communications