Box Score
MSU faced Valley City State University tonight in a tight battle between two familiar North Star foes. Mayville State held a 2-11 record in the NSAA before tonight, VCSU stood at 8-6 in conference play. 

The Comets started sharp, jumping out to an early lead with offense from Jaden Christianson and Cassidy Miller. The Vikings were able to battle and keep things close throughout the first half of the set, bringing themselves within two at the midway point. Hannah Bliss was able to put away a couple kills to bring things to a 15-12 MSU lead. Both teams traded points until the Vikings were able to take advantage of MSU errors and string together three points in a row, capped off by Hailie Wilds kill late in the set. With the match tied at 22, the Vikings were able to get a kill from Paige Benson to take the lead. VCSU followed that up with a service error, bring the score back to a tie at 23. From there, VCSU scored on an error by MSU and put the first set away with a kill from Taylor Sharp. 

MSU was able to jump ahead early, 11-4, in the second set, but the Vikings responded by going on a 9-0 run to take a 13-11 lead midway through. From there, VCSU built a a 2-14 lead with strong offense from Sharp and Ellie Winter. The Comets battled to bring things within four at the end but the Vikings were too much, taking the second 25-18. 

The third set saw both teams come out firing, the match went back and forth early with teams trading points. With things locked at ten, the Comets were able to get things going by putting together a 14-2 run with key offense from Rumor Stokes and Miller. Hannah Bliss shut the door for MSU by putting away a couple of points late, the Comets won the third 25-14. 

The fourth set was close early, MSU was able to jump to early lead but the Vikings were able to keep things close. With things tied at nine, the Comets got a nice string of offense from Miller and Christianson to build a 13-9 lead. MSU maintained its lead until the Vikings were able to gain some momentum and come within two, but the Comets shut the door by scoring the last five points in the set with kills from Jana Mehus and Miller, taking the set 25-18. 

The last set went down to the wire and was a back-and-forth grind early on. The Comets got a key stretch of offense midway through with kills from Mehus, Christianson, and Miller to bring things to a 9-7 lead for MSU. The Vikings were able to respond with a five-point run of their own to bring things to 12-9. After trading a couple points, MSU was able make things interesting with a kill from Jayden Warner and a block from Whitney Janu and Rumor Stokes. But Taylor Sharp put things away for VCSU on the following possession with a kill to take the set 15-13. 

Cassidy Miller had a great game with 17 kills and eight blocks, Whitney Janu added eight kills and seven blocks. Jana Mehus led the Comets with 37 assists, and TaLise Hansen ended the match with 22 digs. 

The Comets are back in action this weekend when they take on Dickinson State and the University of Jamestown.