“The team did a great job of staying consistent and pushing hard to get both matches in 3 sets this weekend,” commented M State Head Coach Abby Crowser. “We’ve been working on improving our mental toughness and it definitely showed. Brooke Hovland led the team in kills both matches and has started to connect well with Kaia Strom allowing our offense to improve overall. We are starting to see what we want to see at this point in the season and are going to keep trying to build on it.”

Emily Condon (18/19, 2 aces), Strom (13/13, 3 aces), Bailey Marty (12/13, 1 ace) and Avery Wanner (12/12, 1 ace) were the serving leaders against Riverland.  Hovland had 10 kills to lead the attack at the net. Emily Dehler added 7 kills and 1 block, Condon had 6 kills, Anya Maack had 6 kills and 1 block, and Alaina Anderson recorded 5 blocks.  Strom distributed 29 set assists, had 9 digs, 4 kills and 2 blocks from the setter position.  Defensive leaders were Marty with 25 digs and Condon with 9.

Hovland again led the attack against Minnesota West with 14 kills and 1 block.  Maack had 8 kills and 5 blocks, Condon 6 kills and 1 block, and Anderson 4 kills and 1 block.  Strom had 33 set assists and 13 digs.  Marty led the team with 17 digs and Condon added 11.  Top servers were Condon (20/21, 4 aces), Strom (14/15, 1 ace), Marty (11/11, 1 ace) and Jayna Gronewold (10/11, 3 aces).

M State is now 10-4 overall and 9-1 in the MCAC.  They will host Rochester at 6:30pm Friday and entertain NDSCS in their homecoming match at noon on Saturday.