Number four ranked SMSU Mustangs were upset by #20 ranked Augustana on Thursday, Sept. 15 at home.
It was a hard fought battle as the Mustangs took the early lead winning the first match 19-25. Augustana battled back and won the second set by the same 25-19 score. That stoked the Mustangs’ fire as they battled back to win the third set 25-19 again.
This set the stage for the crucial fourth match. Three separate timeouts were called in succession. Two by Augustana, and one by SMSU. Augustana won the match 25-18 and coasted through the fifth match 15-11.
Terry Culhane, head coach, said, “It’s our conference, you better be ready to play and battle for potentially five sets. They just made more plays than we did at the end.”
SMSU was led by outside hitter Taylor Reiss with 27 kills and 14 digs.
“I think we played pretty hard, it’s just at the end of the game we need to finish and not let them come at us, we have to be the ones that go after them,” Reiss said. “We had times where we were ahead and then we let them come back. It’s just at the end of games we need to learn how to finish them and not let them come back into the game.”
The Mustangs have to move on to play the number two team in the nation on Saturday in Wayne, NE. Wayne State is currently undefeated with a record of 9-0 while the Mustangs hold a 6-3 record.