Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State University sophomore middle blocker Natalie Pilney goes up for a hit against Minnesota Crookston on Sept. 27 (right) in the PE Gym in Marshall.

MARSHALL — Coming off a pair of wins the past two weekends, the No. 16 Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball team will look to pick up its fourth and fifth-straight wins when it takes on Northern State and Jamestown in a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference road matches on Friday and Saturday. 

The Mustangs, who moved up two spots in this week’s American Volleyball Coaches Association polls, picked up two wins last weekend over Minnesota Duluth in four sets on Friday, before sweeping Bemidji State on Saturday. 

SMSU (17-6, 10-6 NSIC) will first take on Northern State (18-6, 10-6 NSIC) on Friday at 6 p.m. in Aberdeen, in the 78th meeting between the two teams. The Mustangs won a 4-1 hold over the Wolves in their last five matches, while Northern State took the last meeting in four sets last November. 

Sophomore Linnea Nesheim currently leads Northern State offensively with 3.59 kills a set. 

For SMSU, Leah Jones currently leads the offense with 333 kills on the season, averaging a team-high 3.83 kills a set, on a .261 hitting percentage. 

Mya Krystosek, Ashley Peltier and Natalie Pilney are among the other Mustangs supporting the front of the net, while Sydney Thein continues to set up her hitters with 1,006 set assists so far on the season. 

Defensively, McKenzie Tolk has held down the back row, averaging a team-best 4.63 digs a set with 403 on the season so far. Krystosek, Kennedy Drake, Thein, Jones and Ashlynn Schroeder also all contribute heavily on the defensive end, all partnering with Tolk with over 100 digs so far as well. 

Following Friday, SMSU will then head up north to take on new-NSIC competition at Jamestown on Saturday at noon. 

This is Jamestown’s first year competing in the NSIC, but will be the seventh time the Jimmies and Mustangs meet in program history. But, the two have not played one another in 34 years. 

Jamestown (9-14, 4-12 NSIC) is coming off a pair of losses last weekend to Winona State and Concordia-St. Paul, and will be looking to get back in the win column. 

The Jimmies are led by junior Ava Mueller at the front of the net with 2.32 kills a set. 

This weekend’s matches can be watched on the NSIC Network. 

SMSU will return back to Marshall next weekend for its final regular season home matches against UMary and Minor State. Senior Night will be hosted next Friday.