Reiss leads SMSU to second at Premier

The No. 8 Southwest Minnesota State (5-3) volleyball team fell to No. 2 Concordia-St. Paul (6-2) tonight in the Colorado Premier Challenge championship. CSP won in three sets (25-16, 25-22, 25-16) to claim the title of the tournament.

SMSU won the tournament last season and this would be its fourth second-place finish.

Taylor Reiss (Minneota) and Sarina Smith were responsible for half of the teams kills with Reiss contributing nine and Smith, eight.

Concordia-St. Paul took an early lead the in the first set going up 8-3.

The match only had four times in which the Mustangs were able to rally and take the lead from the Golden Bears before they pulled ahead for the win.

CSP had two players to have double-digit kills, Hope Schiller had 12 while Brooklyn Lewis had 14.

The Mustangs went on a 4-0 run in the second set to make it a two-point game after being down five or more throughout the set.

The Golden Bears led the entire third set to close out the sweep over the Mustangs.

This is the Golden Bears sixth title at the Colorado Premier Challenge.

Earlier the Mustangs advanced to the Colorado Premier Challenge championship with a sweep over Missouri Western State (25-17, 25-9, 25-22).

The Mustangs were the winner of their pool on Friday to advance to the gold bracket to play Missouri Western State, the winner of their collective pool.

The Mustangs were led by Taylor Reiss, with 12 kills and 10 digs. Southwest Minnesota State opens conference play this Thursday at 6 p.m. in the PE Gym against Augustana for its home opener.