WICHITA FALLS, Texas - Midwestern State battled toe-to-toe for two sets with the fourth-rated program NCAA Division II Friday night at the MSU Hampton Inn-vitational at D.L. Ligon Coliseum.

And the Mustangs claimed a third-set win over mighty Emporia State, but the Hornets answered the call to claim a 25-14, 25-16, 16-25, 25-13 victory to improve to 6-0 on the season.

Midwestern did snap ESU's 17-set win streak, but fell to 0-6.
The Mustangs close out the two-day tournament with matches against Southwest Baptist at 11 a.m. and Northwood (Mich.) at 4 p.m. at Ligon Coliseum.

Senior middle blocker Sesley Graves paced the Midwestern attack with 10 kills and committed just three errors in 21 attempts for a .333 hitting percentage, while fellow middle Lauren Bayer, a junior from San Antonio, put down eight kills with two errors to hit .429.

Sophomore outsiders Miranda Byrd and Hillary White stayed active to finish with eight and seven kills, respectively.

Sophomore setter Dimery Michaels paced the offense with 21 assists as the Mustangs had 12 kills and committed just two errors as a team in the third and fourth sets against one of the top defensive teams in the country.

Libero Kiara Jordan led the defense with 10 digs while Graves, Bayer and Tiana Bond combined for  5.5 of MSU seven total team blocks.

Emporia State placed three hitters in double-digit kills including Brittney Miller (15 kills), Brianne Boner (14 kills) and All-American Arica Shepherd (13 kills), while All-America setter Ting Liu posted 53 assists and 11 digs to guide the Hornets to a .357 team hitting percentage.