Reiss had 87 kills as SMSU splits in opener

The Southwest Minnesota State women's volleyball team has dropped six spots to No. 8 in the latest American Volleyball Coaches' Association (AVCA) Top-25 poll released Tuesday.

SMSU (2-2, 0-0 NSIC) opened its season at the West Florida Invitational this past weekend against four teams, also ranked in the Top-25 Preseason poll.

The Mustangs won their season opener Friday afternoon with a 3-0 victory against Western Washington but dropped the next two matches against West Florida with a final score of 3-1 and fell to Regis in five sets.

The Mustangs finished the tournament with a sweep of Wheeling Jesuit on Saturday night.

Minneota’s Taylor Reiss had 33 kills, three blocks and two assists in the game against Regis. For the tournament she had a total of 87 kills, 12 blocks and in the win over Wheeling Jesuit, she had 25 digs.

For the first time since she joined SMSU, Reiss is playing without her high school teammate and setter Morgan Larson, who graduated last year. The setter this year is Emma Thomssen, a sophomore from Lincoln, Nebraska.

In the latest poll, SMSU received a total of 822 points and one first place vote to sit behind another NSIC competitor, No. 7 Northern State (838).

The poll is led by two NSIC schools, Minnesota Duluth (1147) who jumped from third to first place, followed by Concordia-St. Paul (1056) who dropped to second.

SMSU was ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll and has now been ranked in the Top-25 for 163 consecutive polls, dating back to Sept. 5, 2006, and have been ranked among the Top 10 for 67 consecutive polls. Southwest Minnesota State travels to the Colorado Premier this weekend to play Colorado Christian on Friday at 12 p.m. and Saint Leo at 7 p.m. to open the tournament.

Taylor Reiss

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