Photo by Jake McNeill Southwest Minnesota State University middle blocker Emma VanHeel goes up for a hit during the second set of a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference volleyball match against Minot State at the PE Gym in Marshall on Saturday. The Mustangs defeated the Beavers 3-0 in a homecoming weekend sweep.

MARSHALL — The No. 7 Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball team completed its homecoming weekend sweep on Saturday afternoon, taking down Minot State in straight sets, 25-11, 25-17, 25-8 in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.

SMSU’s win followed a straight-sets victory over UMary on Friday to give the Mustangs a three-match win streak since their loss to St. Cloud State on Oct. 5.

After getting swept by Minnesota State on Friday, Minot State finishes the weekend with its eighth and ninth consecutive losses since the Beavers’ five-set win over Brandon University on Sept. 14. They are still yet to pick up a conference win.

Before the match started, SMSU honored the 2004 volleyball team, which reached the national semifinals 20 years ago. Many of the players and members of the team were present for the acknowledgement.

The Mustangs’ win over the Beavers started with its defensive play. SMSU held Minot State to a -.021 hitting percentage in the match, including a mark of 0.0 in the second set and -.125 in the third. SMSU, meanwhile, hit .386 on the day.

“Something we talked about in between games 2 and 3 is I felt like we did a good job at the net just slowing balls down,” SMSU head coach Tyler Boddy said. “There are a lot of those good block touches that don’t go on the score sheet. We did that row and then our back row just played really hard.”

In the front row, SMSU logged 15 blocks to Minot State’s five. Emma VanHeel and Sydney Thein each had a solo block, as well as four block assists for VanHeel and another three from Natalie Pilney for SMSU, while Brommenschenkel and Kowalska tallied five and three block assists respectively for Minot State.

Libero McKenzie Tolk led SMSU’s back row with 19 digs in the match while Mya Krystosek and Kennedy Drake added 10 and eight respectively. For the Beavers, Kelci Madrid led the team with 14 digs while Jaina Macaulay and Emily Barker contributed another six each.

Game 2 was the most competitive of the match for the Beavers. Paulina Kowalska got a kill and combined with Bailee Brommenschenkel for a pair of blocks, while Madelynn Boop added another kill to give the Beavers each of the set’s first four points.

Boddy attributed Minot State’s early success in the second set to their tough service throughout the match, adding that the Beavers also put up a tough block at the net early on.

The Beavers maintained that lead up to 7-3 before the Mustangs surged ahead. Three consecutive kills from Emma VanHeel brought SMSU within a point and another two in a row from Leah Jones gave SMSU its first lead of the match. A combined block from VanHeel and Jones and another kill from Jones capped off the 7-0 run with SMSU leading 10-7.

For the rest of the set, SMSU slowly extended its lead. The gap reached its apex when a block from VanHeel and Paige Steinmetz made the score 24-15 in favor of the Mustangs. Minot State was able to capitalize on SMSU service and attacking errors but VanHeel closed out the set with another kill to finalize it at 25-17.

VanHeel finished tied with Jones with a team-leading nine kills, on a .450 hitting percentage for VanHeel and .500 for Jones. True freshmen Natalie Pilney and Natalie Pilney also added eight and five kills for SMSU, including .636 hitting for Pilney.

Kowalska led Minot State with six kills on a 0.0 hitting percentage while Boop added another four.

Minot State scored the first point of all three sets. Yet, SMSU pulled away rapidly in the first and third.

Trailing 2-1 in the first set, kills from Natalie Pilney and Jones and a block from Ashley Peltier and VanHeel gave SMSU its first lead of the match. After Kowalska responded with a kill for Minot State, SMSU responded with another seven unanswered points and never looked back to claim a 25-11 lead.

Minot State also led 2-1 in the third set before SMSU rallied ahead with kills from Sydney Thein, VanHeel and Peltier and a MInot State attacking error. The Mustangs made a serving error on the next point to put the ball back in Minot State’s court, but another three unanswered points for the Mustangs made it 8-3.

Up to the point that SMSU led 15-7, Minot State kept the set reasonably close. Yet, another 9-0 run for SMSU made it 24-7. After a kill from Brommenschenkel ended the drought for the Beavers, Emily Rohrer got the match-sealing kill for a 25-8 win for SMSU.

Thein recorded 39 set assists for SMSU without a setting error while Barker and Macaulay recorded nine and four assists for the Beavers with one error for Barker.

Minot State was shorthanded for the match, bringing a roster of 10 players and no assistant coaches to Marshall. As fatigue set in throughout the match, SMSU was able to work deeper into its rotations and got 13 players on the court in the match.

“Our team did a good job of allowing us to have the ability to do that [play its depth] later in the game. Our kids have worked really hard throughout the year, so they should get rewarded with being able to get on the floor because it’s truly a team effort,” Boddy said. “They’ve been a big part of it, so they deserve to get out there too. They did a good job when we threw them in there and I thought our team played harder.”

Minot State falls to 1-14 on the season and 0-8 in the NSIC, placing them in a tie for last place with UMary. The Beavers will have the opportunity to break that tie in their next match on Thursday when they go on the road to take on the Marauders (1-14) in Bismarck at 6 p.m.

SMSU improves to 17-1 overall and 8-1 in the NISC, tying Concordia-St. Paul and Wayne State for second in the conference after Wayne State lost in five sets to first-place St. Cloud State on Saturday. The Mustangs will look to continue their ascent up the standings when they host Winona State (12-8, 5-4 NSIC) on Friday at 6 p.m. before taking on Concordia-St. Paul (13-4, 8-1 NSIC) on Saturday at 4 p.m.