ABERDEEN, S.D. - The Mayville State Volleyball squad entered into North Star Athletic Association play tonight, going on the road to visit the Presentation College Saints. It was a match filled with tense moments throughout the contest, with the Saints coming out ahead in the end in a 4-set thriller.

Starting things off in the first set, the Saints came out strong, jumping out to a 10-3 lead and continuing their surge against a rattled Comet squad. It was a slow start for the Comets in this one, ball handling errors topped with kills from Presentation's Olivia Stet and Amber Kline made it difficult for the Comets to climb back early. The Saints built a 10-point cushion throughout much of the match, the Comets managed a push for a late rally, but fell short in the first set 17-25.

The second set saw the Comets off balance early, but started to find a groove to battle their way back into it after the Presentation offense jumped out to an 8-1. The Comets worked to tie it up at 12 apiece, fueled by a nice string of kills from Cassidy Miller and Kiana Johnson. The two teams went back and forth until they found themselves knotted up at 21, 22, and 23, then PC capitalized on a Comet error and put away a kill to get the victory in a 23-25 ending. 

In Set 3, things were tight early with four ties and three different lead changes before things were knotted at 7. Cassidy Miller and Victoria Johnson provided the offense in the early going, then Natalie Hadrava and Jana Mehus got in the mix with kills of their own to tie things again at 11. Neither team led by more than 2 points as they inched their way to thirteen ties with the last one being at 17 all. It looked like a see-saw battle was going to be the theme in this set, but the Comets were able to take advantage of some Cassidy Miller kills and service errors by the Saints late in the game to push it into Set #4 with their 25-21 win.  

Set 4 looked like the Comets were getting momentum swinging in their favor and about to force a fifth and final set in the process. An early 8-4 lead had the Saints taking a timeout to try and take the Comets out of their rhythm. It wasn't very successful, as the attack from Victoria Johnson and Rumor Stokes with a series of surprise dumps over the net from Jana Mehus helped build the lead to 21-16. It looked like the Comets were going to keep cruising to a win in this set, but PC was able to put together a series of strong kills to tie it up at 24.  An attack error and service error by the Comets led to PC escaping with the win, 26-24 and taking it 3-1 overall in the contest.

Coach Lindsey Johnson felt it was a rough start to the game against a good Presentation team, who moved to 8-4 on the season. "We came out really slow tonight and I felt like that really affected our tempo. We played better in set three and four and had some chances down the stretch," explained Johnson. "It's hard to come back on a tough team like PC, but we're looking forward to having a home game on Friday."

Victoria Johnson led the Comets with 12 kills, Cassidy Miller followed that with 11 of her own.  Jana Mehus led all players in assists with 36, and Jayden Warner had another nice night defensively with 30 digs to lead all players as well.

The Comets move to 7-7 overall, and an 0-1 start in NSAA action. Their next game is at home this Friday against Briar Cliff University, game time at 7 p.m.