The Mayville State Comet Volleyball team played their last regular season game on the road tonight against their North Star Athletic Association foe, the Dickinson State Blue Hawks in Dickinson, ND. It was a pivotal game with conference post-season positions on the line. Each team would see the momentum shift from set to set until the Comets took over in the end to come away with a 3-2 victory.
The Comets and the Blue Hawks were playing it very close for the first set until DSU was able to break loose near the end. The score was tied 5 times on the way to 14 all, with
Kiana Johnson,
Natalie Hadrava and
Jana Mehus getting 2 kills each in that span for the Comets. DSU would take control from that point under the serving of Kadara Marshall and help take the Blue Hawks on an 11-2 surge to finish out the set with a 25-16 victory.
Set 2 saw much of the same neck-to-neck battles as the first set began with. The Comets would find themselves down 14 to 9 after a 6-6 tie, then built some momentum to take the lead.
Natalie Hadrava and
Cassidy Miller contributed some game-changing kills that helped turn the tide for the Comets in that run. DSU would be a bother and fight back to tie things up and take a small lead near the end, but it was the finishing touches of Hadrava and
Kiana Johnson coming through with two Comet kills to win it, 26-24.
The game's momentum swung back to the Blue Hawks for Set 3. DSU's Sydney Bentz was a force that the Comets couldn't quite contain early on in this set as the Blue Hawks took an 8-1 lead that was fueled by 5 of her 7 kills in the set. Kylie Hadley took over with a string of kills that the Comets had a hard time stopping as well. MSU found themselves down by 10 a handful of times in this set, trying to close the gap at the end with
Cassidy Miller collecting 4 kills in the effort. However, DSU won the third set, 25 to 18.
The Comets came back with a strong showing in Set 4 as they had to battle back from the 2-1 deficit. MSU took control with a big series of attacks coming from
Cassidy Miller and
Victoria Johnson with 6 kills and 5 kills, respectively.
Natalie Hadrava also aided in the effort, coming up big with three straight service aces to help lift the lead. The Comets couldn't be contained in this one, as they ran out to a 25-14 victory to push it into the deciding fifth and final set of the night.
Mayville State used that late game momentum in their favor to take control of Set 5 and keep the Blue Hawks away from a victory. They would build up a small lead of 1 to 3 points and kept it steady to the end with
Natalie Hadrava,
Kiana Johnson and
Victoria Johnson being threats at the net and getting 2 kills each in this set. Hadrava would end it with another service ace on the night to give the Comets a 15-10 victory to help give the Comets a boost into the post-season tourney.
It was a big night for the Comets to come out with the win. Coach
Lindsey Johnson felt it was a big win for the team, as road wins are tough to get. "It was great! We had such big numbers from our offense and that was huge! Three players in double figures for kills was a big factor in our effort tonight."
The Comets had three players in double figures for kills:
Cassidy Miller rounded up 19, followed by
Victoria Johnson with 17 and
Natalie Hadrava with 10. Hadrava would earn a double-double on the night with 16 digs, as well as her top performance in serving with a game-high of 4.
Jana Mehus had a game high of 50 assists plus 12 digs to go with it, making her the second Comet to earn a double-double in the contest.
Jayden Warner led the squad once again with 32 digs, followed up by Hadrava's 16,
Rumor Stokes with 16, Mehus' 12, and
Mason Hart's 10, all part of 102 total digs for MSU as a team.
The Mayville State Comets now move to a 19-15 overall record and 5-9 in the NSAA standings. They will have to wait to see how the rest of the conference battles things out to see where they end up seeding in the NSAA championship tournament.
