ST. PAUL - Behind a high-flying offensive attack that hit .411 in the match, the No. 2 seed Southwest Minnesota State volleyball team downed No. 3 seed Minnesota Duluth in the semifinal match of the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference / US Bank Tournament on Saturday afternoon. SMSU earned the match with convincing set victories of 25-16, 25-17 and 25-18. With the win SMSU improves to 28-2 overall and advances to the finals tomorrow afternoon.

The Mustangs had arguably the most complete match of the year as SMSU hitters only committed five errors in the entire match and boasted an efficient attack (.411) that the Bulldogs couldn't keep up with.

It is the second time that SMSU has swept UMD this season, as the Mustangs defeated the Bulldogs 3-0 on Sept. 22 in Marshall.

No Mustangs recorded double-digit kills but Mary Groth, Devin Diedrich, Brooke Burmeister and Abbey Thissen all contributed nine kills respectively. McKell Anderson, who had a career-high 18 kills in the quarterfinals match, added five kills.

SMSU controlled the match throughout as the Mustangs only surrendered the lead just three times and allowed six tied scores.

SMSU posted six blocks but all six blocks came at key moments that influenced the momentum. Diedrich and Groth set the tone early with Bulldog denials in the first set to jump out to a 7-3 lead. Abbey Thissen would post her first solo block of the year as she denied UMD's strongest hitter, Kate Lange. The block pushed the Mustang lead to 22-14 and the Mustangs would eventually take the set off a McKell Anderson kill moments later.

In the second set, the two teams would put together a few runs to swing momentum back and forth. First was SMSU, as the Mustangs put together a 4-0 run to push their early lead to 12-6. UMD would call its first timeout and respond with a 5-0 run to cut the Mustang lead to just 12-11. The two teams would battle it out to get the score to 18-15 in favor of SMSU and the Mustangs would grasp the momentum once again with a key solo block from Mary Groth. With SMSU winning 22-17, senior Devin Diedrich would step up and put the Bulldogs away in the second set as she and Gutzmer hooked up for three straight kills to take a 2-0 lead.

In the third set, SMSU would lead throughout but keyed off a huge momentum swinging kill from Brooke Burmeister that ended a long UMD-SMSU volley. Mary Groth would all but seal the match as she came up big yet again with a solo block to put SMSU up 23-18. SMSU would take the set and match on a Maddy Siroin attack error.

With sweeps of No. 7 Minnesota State and No. 3 Minnesota Duluth, SMSU advances to the NSIC finals that will be played tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. The Mustangs will face the winner of the No. 1 Concordia-St. Paul and No. 5 Northern State match that will be played later tonight.