SMSU VOLLEYBALL: SMSU uses milestones to defeat UMary, 3-0
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MARSHALL -- A career milestone and a rare statistical feat. No. 11 Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball's victory against the University of Mary had a little bit of everything.
Angela Young reached 1,000 career kills and Meg Schmidt recorded a triple-double (15 kills, 13 digs, 11 set assists) as SMSU cruised past the Marauders 3-0 (25-12, 25-16, 25-20) on Saturday.
SMSU coach Terry Culhane said he felt they did a good job of answering the call when UMary put pressure on them and taking advantage on the offensive end.
"I think they put us in some tough spots at times and I thought our kids responded to that well," Culhane said. "We tried to take advantage of certain hitters with certain spots on the floor and I thought we did a good job with that where they gave us some room on the line and we got good looks."
Within the first couple of points, Young earned her milestone kill, becoming the 15th player in program history to reach the mark.
"I would have guessed she had it already, but she came back late this year and wanted to play for her final year [after COVID canceled the 2020 season]," Culhane said. "I'm glad that she did for a lot of reasons but she accomplished 1,000 kills, so that's important too."
SMSU would hold a slim lead in the early stages, going up 5-3 before pushing it to 11-7. After UMary drew to within three at 14-11, SMSU created separation with a strong serving run by Schmidt to make it 17-11. The Mustangs then built a double-digit advantage at 22-12 before taking Set 1, 25-12.
SMSU held an early advantage to start Set 2 with a 4-1 lead before UMary trimmed the deficit to two at 7-5. The two teams would trade points over the next several serves, as a pair of kills by Schmidt made it 17-10 and SMSU took Set 2, 25-16 and a 2-0 lead in the match.
The third set saw UMary claim an early lead at 4-1, its first of the afternoon, but SMSU answered with a run to tie things up at 8-8. Another Mustangs run would put them up 15-11 and SMSU never looked back, taking Set 3, 25-20 to earn the sweep.
In addition to Schmidt's triple-double, Young added 14 kills, Payton Hjerleid led in digs with 15 and Sophie Johnson led in set assists with 19. Culhane said their key offensively was their strong passing, especially from the back row.
"I thought we passed well for the most part. If you can pass, you can do a lot more things than if you're chasing all over the place," Culhane said. "I thought our ball control was good from our back row kids and that's really important for us."
As a team, SMSU recorded a hitting percentage of .344 while holding UMary to just .193%.
Up next
SMSU (15-2 overall, 7-2 NSIC) will hit the road next week, facing Winona State University on Friday at 6 p.m. before taking on Upper Iowa University on Saturday at 5 p.m.
SMSU 3, UMary 0
UMary 12 16 20
SMSU 25 25 25
Kills: SMSU (Schmidt 15; Young 14; Nichols 6).
Digs: SMSU (Hjerleid 15; Schmidt 13).
Set Assists: SMSU (Johnson 19; Schmidt 11).
Serving (aces): SMSU (Schmidt (4); Fink (3)).