Sioux City, IA – The Mayville State University volleyball dropped a five-set match to the Chargers on Thursday night. The Comets move to 0-1 on the regular season.
The Comets and Chargers were deadlocked at five early in the game before the Chargers scored the next two points to take a 7-5 lead. The Comets would tie the game at seven and then tied it again at eight. With the game tied at nine, Briar Cliff went on a 7-2 run to take an 11-16 lead. The Chargers went on a 6-4 run to end the first set by a final score of 19-25.
It was a back-and-forth game to start the second set as the score was tied at four before the Comets took an 8-5 lead off a kill from Passa. The Chargers answered right back and went on a 6-0 run to take an 8-11 lead. The Comets were down 19-14 later in the second set when MSU went on a 4-0 to cut the lead to one. Mayville State would finish the set on an 8-4 run to win the second set 27-25.
The decisive third set started out tightly as neither team held a lead larger than two through the first 26 points of the set. When the game was tied at 12 the Comets would start a 3-0 run to take a three-point advantage before Briar Cliff would tie the game at 15. A few points later into the set the Comets held a 17-16 lead and would finish the fourth set on a 9-3 run to take a 2-1 set lead on the road.
Mayville State started the fourth set in the set scoring seven out of the first ten points of the set to take a 7-3 lead. The Chargers would come back shortly after that going on a 9-1 run to take a 12-8 lead midway through the second set. Back-to-back kills by Passa and Pyle tied the game at 15 before Briar Cliff went on a 7-2 run to take a 22-17 lead in the fourth set. MSU would not allow the Chargers to just win the fourth set without a fight, as they would cut the lead to one at 22-23 before the BC score the final three points of the set to force the fifth set.
Briar Cliff took advantage of the momentum from the fourth set and jumped out to a 7-3 lead on the Comets. Mayville State would cut the lead to two at 7-5 before the Chargers went on a 3-0 run to double up the Comets at 10-5. Briar Cliff would win the fifth set by a final score of 15-8 and win the match. The Comets finished the game with 48 kills, 24 errors, on 138 attempts for a .174 hitting percentage. They also finished with 68 digs, 48 assists, four blocks, and two aces.
Elora Passa finished with 12 kills, on 34 attempts, tallied 19 assists, one block, and 11 digs. Lily Pyle was also in double figures in kills with 12. Ashley Pyburn tallied nine kills and one block assists in the loss. Rachel Hill tallied 19 assists and seven digs for the Comets. Jordyn Lucas led the Comets in the back row with 15 digs, Natalie Hadrava finished with 11 digs and Payton Richter finished with 10 digs.
The Comets are back in action this weekend at the Hastings College Tournament on Friday and Saturday. The Comets play at 3:00 and 5:00 PM tomorrow. Got to msucomets.com for links for this weekend's games.
