Photo by Jake McNeill Southwest Minnesota State University outside hitter Leah Jones hits the ball over a pair of UMary blockers during the first set of a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference volleyball game at PE Gym in Marshall on Friday night. The No. 7 Mustangs defeated the Marauders in straight sets.

MARSHALL – For the fifth straight meeting, the No. 7 Southwest Minnesota State volleyball team defeated Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference foe UMary on Friday night. Saari Kuehl had 17 kills for the Mustangs as they cruised to a 25-17, 25-14, 25-20 victory to maintain a perfect 27-0 all-time record against the Marauders.

Aside from the volume of her attacks, Kuel was also efficient. She had just one hitting error and finished with a .593 hitting percentage, giving the Mustangs a team mark of .396. Emaa VanHeel also added 11 kills for a .524 hitting percentage and five total blocks, while Leah Jones added another 10 blocks in the match.

VanHeel-Kills accounted for four of the Mustangs’ first nine points in the first set as they took a 9-2 lead. The Marauders cut the deficit to just 3 points, 14-11, but SMSU kept them out of striking range before closing out the 25-17 victory with four unanswered points.

UMary’s only lead of the match came when a kill from Holli Klettheimer gave them a 3-2 lead in the second set. Still, VanHeel got two kills and combined with Jones and Sydney Thein for blocks as SMSU went ahead with a 7-0 run.

UMary’s Gabby Caskey ended the run with a kill, but SMSU responded with another trio of kills from VanHeel, Jones and Kuehl, as well as a Jones service ace to further extend the lead.

From there, SMSU steadily increased its lead before taking the 25-14 win.

Libero McKenzie Tolk led the Mustangs defensively with 14 digs in the match, while My Krystosek and Kennedy Drake added 11 and eight, respectively. Thein, Jones and Karli Arkell also each played key defensive roles with two block assists each and held UMary to a .211 batting average.

UMary libero Kaia Sueker led the Marauders with 15 digs in the match. On Friday, Sueker, a 2019 Marshall High School product, made her final appearance against SMSU in Marshall as she completes her fifth season with the Marauders.

After finishing the second set strong, SMSU never let the Marauders advance in set 3, opening with 4 unanswered points. In the final score of 25-20, UMary never got closer than 3 points to the Mustangs the rest of the night.

Thein recorded 41 set assists with no errors for SMSU, while UMary’s Maddy Freed recorded 29 set assists with five errors.

Caskey and Klettheimer led the Marauders with nine kills each, while Maddie Cooper added another eight with a .412 hitting percentage.

With the win, SMSU improves to 16-1 overall and ties its conference record of 7-1 with Concordia-St. Paul for third place in the NSIC behind Wayne State (8-0) and St. Cloud State (7-0). UMary, meanwhile, falls to 2-13 overall and 0-7 in the NSIC.

The Marauders are tied with Minot State, which the Mustangs will host today at 1 p.m. SMSU has a perfect 15-0 record against Minot State and has defeated the Beavers in 14 of their 15 meetings, with the exception of a 3-2 win over the Beavers in Minot in 2022. Today hosts the Mustangs for the first time since 2021 from Minot State.