Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State University libero McKenzie Tolk (11) puts up a serve during the third set of a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference match against Minot State University on Saturday in Marshall.

MARSHALL — McKenzie Tolk, Karli Arkell and Kenna Bixby played their final home game as members of the Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball team on Saturday when the Mustangs hosted Minot State for Parents Day. The trio of seniors ended their career in the PE Gym on a high note, picking up a 25-20, 25-12, 25-9 sweep of the Beavers in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.

“It’s definitely been a lot of emotions this week, just reflecting on all my time playing in the PE Gym, but it was a great ride,” Arkell said. “I’m really glad that my teammates supported me all the way through. We had great support from our coaching staff, community, other student-athletes, so it’s definitely a bit of an emotional week, but also super grateful for my time here.”

“It’s been such an honor to play in this gym and in front of this community,” Tolk said. “We always have such great support from the community, so it’s just very sad to be done playing in the PE but so grateful to play in front of this community.”

The Mustangs close out their regular season at 21-6 overall and 14-6 in conference play. SMSU qualified for the NSIC tournament as the No. 6 seed and will have to go on the road for their first-round matchup tonight, heading to St. Cloud State University to take on the No. 3 Huskies.

“This is the most fun part of the year. We have a great opportunity to get to play in the conference tournament, and they don’t let everybody in,” SMSU head coach Tyler Boddy said. “There are going to be a couple of teams that aren’t in that are tough and their seasons are done today. It stinks that we’re not able to play at home anymore, but we’re still getting to play volleyball at this point of the year and that’s fun for us, whether we’re home or away.”

Tolk finished her final match in Marshall with 10 digs, trailing only Paige Steinmetz’s 11, while Arkell finished with a pair of block assists, trailing only Natalie Pilney’s five block assists and Steinmetz’s solo block with a pair of block assists. She also had three kills.

SMSU struggled to find its footing early on as the Beavers stayed competitive in the first set. Minot State led as late as 12-11 before a pair of kills from Ashley Peltier and another from Steinmetz gave SMSU the lead for good.

Holding a 16-15 lead, SMSU continued to surge ahead on a 4-0 run behind kills from Ashlynn Schroeder, Arkell and Steinmetz. SMSU maintained a steady cushion until, after a pair of points for the Beavers, Minot State’s Jaina Macaulay committed a service error to clinch SMSU’s 25-20 win.

Peltier finished with a match-leading 12 kills on a .550 hitting percentage, while Leah Jones added another eight and Pilney and Steinmetz each contributed seven. Setter Sydney Thein finished with 34 error-free set assists.

Jones was also a big part of SMSU’s service success, logging four aces in the match while Steinmetz added another pair.

After escaping the first set with a win, SMSU got off to a strong start in the second. Ashley Peltier and Paige Steinmetz each came up with a kill and Pilney added another two. Katelyn Onespot-Danforth interrupted the Mustang run before a Peltier kill, a Pilney service ace and a Steinmetz ace block helped SMSU up to an 8-1 lead.

“I thought we just cranked it up defensively and we served a little bit tougher,” Boddy said of his team’s second-set resurgence. “We blocked better, we had kids playing balls outside of their space… just less balls hitting the floor… We talked about that. We thought we could play better after game 1, and we knew that, so we did a good job of cranking that up.”

The Beavers never recovered as SMSU’s lead steadily grew throughout the match. Minot State started to match the Mustangs’ points once the deficit reached 20-7, but Josie Pundt ended the game with a kill for a 25-12 win.

Onespot-Danforth came up with a kill to start the third set, but a pair of service aces from Jones and a pair of kills from Peltier helped SMSU respond with a 6-1 run.

Minot State trimmed the deficit to 3 points before a trio of kills from Pilney and a series of hitting errors by the Beavers gave the Mustangs 7 unanswered points for a 14-4 lead.

SMSU’s lead hovered around 10 points until it went for the kill down the final stretch. SMSU claimed 7 of the match’s final 8 points, including a pair of kills from Pundt, a kill and a block from Peltier and an ace from Tolk, to end the final home match of the season with a 25-9 win.

SMSU hit .345 as a team in the match while limiting Minot to a .023 hitting percentage. Kennedy Drake and Jones contributed to the team’s defensive success with eight and seven digs, respectively.

Mya Vibeto led the Beavers in digs with 12 while Onespot-Danforth had a team-leading six kills on a .050 hitting percentage. Macauley logged nine set assists while Mia Thompson logged four block assists.

Mustang milestones

After the match, SMSU recognized Leah Jones for being the 18th Mustang to reach 1,000 kills and Sydney Thein for being the 11th Mustang to reach 2,000 set assists this season.

Jones, a junior, now sits 16th on the all-time kills leaderboard for SMSU with 1,048 while Thein, a sophomore, ranks ninth in set assists with 2,477.

During her three years as a Mustang, Jones has grown into an elite offensive threat, Boddy said, noting her regional Freshman of the Year and All-Conference accolades during her time with the Mustangs. He added that Thein has done a good job of trusting Jones and all of the other hitters on the team, and that ability to distribute the ball evenly has helped both of the two Mustangs to find success.

Hometown heroes

Tolk and Arkell both grew up in southwest Minnesota before starting their collegiate career with the Mustangs.

Tolk was an All-State volleyball player and a two-time state champion with the Minneota Vikings in her high school days, while Arkell was an All-State player for Red Rock Central.

Up next

SMSU heads up to Halenbeck Hall in St. Cloud for the NSIC quarterfinals tonight at 6 p.m., with the winner of today’s game taking on either Wayne State or Northern State in Saturday’s quarterfinals.

“I feel like in previous years, we’ve kind of just stayed the same at the end of the year. This year, we’re really focusing on getting better toward the end of the year so that we can go into conference just playing our best volleyball and then trying to make a run for it at the end of the year,” Tolk said.

SMSU entered the year ranked third in the NSIC preseason coaches poll, trailing only St. Cloud State and Concordia-St. Paul after receiving four first-place votes. While the Mustangs have fallen behind the preseason expectations, they know upsets happen in the postseason. The Mustangs lost in the first round of the 2023 NSIC tournament to No. 6 Duluth as the third seed, and fell to No. 5 Northern State in the first round of last year’s tournament as the No. 4 seed.

“We knew whether we were the 1 seed or the 8 seed, we were going to play somebody really tough in our league. Now we’ve just got to be able to do it on the road,” Boddy said.

SMSU enters the match ranked No. 13 in the Division II coaches poll, up one spot from last week, and will look to earn its way to its third consecutive NCAA tournament. The Mustangs are currently on the outside looking in of the Central Region top 10, with three conference champions and five at-large bids making the cut for the NCAA tournament.

“Our conference is a tough conference to play in, so there are going to be those ups and downs, but I think we can work through those and learn from our losses or learn from a tight win,” Arkell added. “That’s something we’ve gotten really good at. We have a goal to win the conference tournament, make it to the regional and go as far as we can. I mean, it’s a tough conference to do it in, but we’re playing our best volleyball right now.”