The Comet Volleyball team returned to the Lewy Lee Fieldhouse to close out their last games at home this weekend. They started with the Bellevue University Bruins in North Star Athletic Association conference play tonight in a thriller of a matchup that went to five sets in the end, with the Bruins escaping with the win here on Comet Senior Night.
The Comets set a good tone for the night with the first set, jumping out to a 9-3 lead and forcing BU to take a timeout soon into the contest. Senior
Cassidy Miller was leading the charge with 3 kills in that short run. The Bruins would continue to fight back and brought it to within 4 with a 5-3 run of their own. MSU was able build their lead by as much as 8 at times, as Miller,
Victoria Johnson and
Hannah Bliss provided the offense in the front row. The Comets were hitting at a .324 rate in the set, while the Bruins were struggling with a .154 hitting percentage. In the end, the Comets came away with the victory in a 25-19 manner.
The second set belonged to Bellevue, however, as they began the set with a 10 to 3 run after the game started tied at 3, with Andrea Carson and Rosa Reed-Bouley collecting 5 kills on that run. The Comets would come back with kills from
Hannah Bliss to close the gap at 13 to 17, but it wasn't enough as the Bruins kept the Comets away in the end, taking it 25-19 to tie things up at one set each.
Both sides were in a battle for the third set of the night, as the score was tied nine times in the contest. The Comets jumped out to a quick 6-2 lead after
Cassidy Miller found a groove getting three kills for MSU on the early run. The Comets would keep the lead on the way to a 13 to 9 score until Bellevue rattled off four straight points for the first tie of the set at 13. Andrea Carson started off the momentum shift with 2 straight kills, followed by a kill each from Shayla Scanlan and Olivia Gaias. It would continue to inch all the way to a tie at 23 until the Bruins pulled away with a quick 2 points to end the set and gain a 2-1 lead.
The Comets weren't finished for the night and kept battling in the fourth set, coming back from a 6-2 deficit and being able to knot it up at 6, 9 and 10 until they started to take control. The Comet front line of
Hannah Bliss,
Cassidy Miller,
Rumor Stokes and
Victoria Johnson were keeping the Comets in it, as Miller racked up 6 kills in the set. Miller, Stokes and Johnson each had 3 to help pace the Comets to a 25-20 win to push it into five.
Bellevue would end up coming out strong in the final set, collecting seven more kills and taking advantage of some small strings of Comet errors on their way to an 11-6 lead. That forced the Comets to take a timeout as they tried to regroup a little for a comeback. A kill by
Victoria Johnson and a Bruin error brought the Comets to within four to force a BU timeout. But, Bellevue would come out of the timeout and put away MSU 15-8 to take the match 3-2.
For the Comets,
Cassidy Miller had a big game and a game-high 21 kills to lead her team, followed by
Victoria Johnson and
Hannah Bliss with 15 each. The three of them paced the Comets in racking up 62 kills on the night.
Jana Mehus had 58 assists, while the back row was defended well by the trio of
Jayden Warner with 39 digs, plus
Mason Hart with 13 and
Jacey Ross with 10. MSU tallied 79 digs for the evening.
Victoria Johnson led the team with 6 blocks.
For the Bruins, they had 3 in double figures for kills: Shayla Scanlan with 17, Andrea Carson with 16 and Sierra Athen with 12. The Bruins collected 70 kills total. Olviia Gaias also tied Mehus as a game leader with 58 assists on the night. In digs, Madi Evans rounded up 35 of them, followed by Reaghan Stueve and Fabiola Aviles with 10 each. Coree Lipovsky had a game high 8 blocks to lead Bellevue.
The Comets move their record to 17-12, 3-6 in the NSAA, while the Bruins go to 17-8 overall and a 7-2 record in the conference. MSU takes on Dakota State on Saturday, October 20th at noon at home.
