Bellevue, NE – The Mayville State Volleyball team took to the road after a brief homestretch to take on the #22 Bellevue University Bruins tonight in a North Star Athletic Association matchup. The level of play has really stepped up in the NSAA this year, as tonight the Comets showed they can play well with one of the better teams in the conference. Bellevue would get the best of the Comets in the end, but Mayville State made the Bruins earn their win.

In Set 1, it was all Bellevue. The Bruins began a nice 5-0 run after the set was netted at 4 each with Andrea Carson getting 3 straight kills in that stretch. The Bruins would never look back from that point and build a steady lead throughout, getting 19 kills alone in the first set on their way to the 25-15 win.

The Comets would not remain down and out over the early setback and fought hard in the next three sets. Mayville State jumped out to an early 5-3 lead, mainly caused by errors from the Bruins. The set went back and forth for a while between the two teams, with MSU getting a 3-point edge over the Bruins at 14-11 after a kill from Cassidy Miller. But, Andrea Carson helped put a stop to it and gave BU the lead over the Comets with 3 kills in a quick stretch, Miller was able to respond with another kill and tie it up at 15. From there, Bellevue went on a 3-0 run to force MSU into a timeout, which was helpful for the Comets. Victoria Johnson came out of the the break and laid down two kills to help tie the set up at 20 each after and error from the Bruins.

Bellevue would find their way to a set point at 24-22, but Cassidy Miller added another kill for the Comets to extend the set. The Bruins' Olivia Galas would finish it off for them with a kill, earning a 25-23 win in Set 2.  BU had 20 kills as a team in this set, while the Comets fired back with 11. 

Set 3 belonged to the Comets in another close one with a 25-22 score, the set would be tied nine different times in this contest. Hannah Bliss had a nice stretch of kills in the middle of the set, collecting 3 of them after it was tied at 13 to give the Comets another small lead. It was a balanced attack of kills from both Bliss and Cassidy Miller throughout the match, Bliss had 4 kills in the set and Miller had 3. Rumor Stokes also mixed in 2 of her own within the set. The Comets would see themselves up on the scoreboard at 21-19 late before the Bruins called a timeout, but the Comets were able to seal it up by forcing Bruin errors and ending the win with a Hannah Bliss kill. 

The final set of the night had the feeling that it could have easily went into fifth and final one. The two teams were bringing everything into it, as the Bruins wanted to end it now and the Comets wanted to extend the match. Bellevue got out to a 10-7 lead, but the Comets would go on a 5-2 run to tie it up at 12 with kills from Victoria Johnson and Hannah Bliss. The set inched its way to a few ties along the way to 17 all. Bellevue made some mistakes and Victoria Johnson added in another kill to lift the Comets up by 3. MSU would go on to keep the lead at 23-21, only to see BU's Shayla Scanlan and Andrea Carson get two successive kills to tie it all up. Bellevue took a 24-23 lead after another kill, but an error on the following play tied it up again at 24. The Bruins would end the game with a 26-24 win after a wild, long rally-ending kill from Rosa Reed-Bouley, and a ball handling error from the Comets.  

Coach Lindsey Johnson was pleased with her team's ability to fight back after another slow start and be in contention for a win. "I felt like it was another night where we came out a little slow, but found a way to pick it up and compete. I was pleased with the adjustments that we made. It was a tough 4th set where we led in the end and it would have been nice to push it to a 5th set. We had a very nice night passing and playing defense."  

Jayden Warner had a game-high 32 digs on the night, followed up by Natalie Hadrava with 15 and Mason Hart with 9.  The team would have 76 digs total. Jana Mehus led in assists with 37.  In kills, the Comets had three in double figures: Victoria Johnson led with 12, Hannah Bliss with 11 and Cassidy Miller with 10, collecting 33 of the team's 42 on the night. Victoria Johnson also led the Comets with 8 blocks. One of the deciding factors in the contest were the number of kills by each team as the Bruins had a staggering 78 total on the night, to the Comets total of 42.  The Bruins' Olivia Galas also had a game high of 67 assists.  

Next up for the Comets (10-9, 1-3 NSAA) will be against Dakota State on Saturday, game time at 12 p.m..