Photo by Samantha Davis: Southwest Minnesota State University volleyball players, left to right, Karli Arkell, Aydney Thein, Saari Kuehl, Kennedy Drake, McKenzie Tolk and Leah Jones react after points during SMSU’s five-set win over Northern State at the PE Gym in Marshall on Friday night. The fourth-ranked Mustangs are set to go on the road to take on No. 15 Minnesota Duluth and No. 8 St. Cloud State this weekend.

For the second year in a row, the Southwest Minnesota State volleyball team is going dancing.

The selection show for the Division II NCAA volleyball tournament announced which teams’ seasons would be continuing on Monday night. The Mustangs (23-7) were selected as the No. 7 seed in the Central Region, pinning them up against No. 2 Central Oklahoma (30-2) in the first round. The match will be played at Halenbeck Hall in St. Cloud on Thursday.

The selection was an at-large bid for the Mustangs, who were eliminated by Northern State in the Norther Sun Intercollegiate Conference Tournament quarterfinals. SMSU was one of three teams from the NSIC selected for the tournament, including top-seeded St. Cloud State and No. 4 Concordia-St. Paul.

The Mustangs finished fourth in the NSIC standings, falling behind Wayne State via tiebreaker and finishing a game ahead of Northern State. Yet, SMSU’s road win over Wayne State during the regular season and 2-0 record against Northern State prior to the conference tournament loss were enough to push SMSU past the two on the committee’s rankings.

The national tournament berth is the second of head coach Tyler Boddy’s three-year tenure. The Mustangs were eliminated 3-1 by Nebraska-Kearney in the regional quarterfinals in Boddy’s national tournament debut. They return their leader in digs from the match, McKenzie Tolk, as well as their three leaders in kills with Leah Jones, Saari Kuehl and Emma VanHeel.