The Mayville State Comet Volleyball team hosted the Dakota State Trojans this Saturday afternoon for another North Star Athletic Association contest. It was a wild battle between the two conference foes with the Trojans edging out the victory over the Comets, coming from behind and taking the final two sets.

MSU came out strong with a win in the first set, 25-21. They took a commanding 7-1 lead to start things off, able to keep the Trojans away in a safe distance as the set progressed, and were able to take advantage of some poor hitting from the Trojans, although both teams collected 13 kills each to begin the game. 

Set 2 saw Dakota State tie up the match with a 25-19 win. The set began with a back-and-forth battle, tying it nine times on the way to locking it up at 9-9. DSU began to go on a 5-1 run that forced MSU into a timeout, but the Trojans were able to keep their distance from the Comets and collected 20 kills alone in the set.  

In Set 3, the teams created ten ties and a neck-to-neck push past 25 points each. With the game tied at 10 each, DSU would drive out to 17-12 lead, but they would rattle off 4 errors to bring things close and get forced into a timeout. MSU would keep the pressure up from the front line with attacks from Hannah Bliss, Natalie Hadrava, Kiana Johnson and Cassidy Miller, while trying to contain DSU's Maddie Polzin. The game worked its way to a 26-all tie until Miller got a kill for the Comets and DSU ended the game on an attack error to give Set 3 to MSU, 28-26.

The Trojans had their backs to the wall and turned up the pressure by fighting back with a strong fourth set to push it into a fifth and final one. MSU came out to an early 6-2 lead, but fell in an offensive slump midway through the set. With the Comets leading 8-6, DSU went on a 13-2 run, collecting 7 of their 16 kills for the set in that run. It was enough to seal it up for the Trojans in the 25-14 win to move onto Set 5.

The Comets took an early 3-1 lead, but watched DSU get hot again with an 8-1 run that forced MSU to call a timeout. Mayville State would find a spark after that, using a 5-1 run to come within two after 2 kills from Kiana Johnson and a back row attack from Jayden Warner. The Trojans took a quick timeout to break the Comets momentum, and were able to keep the Comets away for the 15-12 victory in Set 5. 

Coach Lindsey Johnson felt that her team let some chances slip away on them in the contest. "I was disappointed in the ending, I felt like we had several opportunities to come out and take control and we just didn't. We have four big conference matches left and we need to get ready and be able to go the distance from start to finish."

If there was a line in the stats that stood out, it was the amount of kills from DSU: 79 to the Comets' 46.  Maddie Polzin had a game-high 23 kills for the Trojans, followed by teammates Barbara Briceno with 19, Kaylee Spreier with 12 and Anna Schwint with 10. For the Comets, they were led by Cassidy Miller and Kiana Johnson with 11 each. 

In assists, the Trojans Rachel Johnson had a game-high 44, her teammate Nicole Sarringar had 22. Jana Mehus for the Comets led with 37 on the day.  

For digs, Jayden Warner from MSU collected 39 for a game-high, with teammate Mason Hart getting 14. Five Trojans were in double figures for them in digs: Anna Shwint led with 31 for a double-double day, while Barbara Briceno had 21, Peyton Groft with 14, Rachel Johnson with 14, and Nicole Sarringar with 11. Briceno and Sarringar also had double-double efforts in the contest. 

In blocks, Cassidy Miller and Victoria Johnson had co-game-highs of 8 each for the Comets, while Sami Zell and Kaylee Spreier led DSU with 5 each. 

The Comets now sit at 17-13 overall, 3-7 in the NSAA. Dakota State moves to 13-10 overall with a 6-4 record in the conference. DSU sits at 4th in the NSAA while MSU sits in 5th place. 

Next action for the Comets will be at Viterbo University on Oct 26th at 7 p.m.. They have four more NSAA games on the road to finish out the regular season.