Box Score La Crosse, Wisc. - The Comets Volleyball team traveled to Wisconsin to battle the #6 ranked Viterbo V-Hawks in a conference matchup. The V-Hawks made critical plays at the end of all three sets to take the victory.

"We did a lot of great things tonight and many of our players had huge impact plays. Viterbo has good offensive players who we knew would get their share of big kills but slowing them down was a part of our game plan," said head coach Katie Aasen post game. 

In set one, Samantha Passa notched three kills to propel Mayville State out to an early 8-4. Viterbo scored five straight points to turn a 12-9 deficit into a 14-12 lead. The Comets got it to 22-18 late, but the V-Hawks scored the last three points to win 25-18.

Set two started in a similar way, with Mayville State taking an early lead. Viterbo managed to knot the score at five, and the Comets responded by going on a 7-2 run to take a 12-7 lead. Abby Cox had consecutive kills to keep the rally going.

The V-Hawks chipped away at the lead to tie it at 17, then the teams traded points to 21. Kills by Elora Passa and Nicole Kortan gave the Comets a 23-21 advantage, but Viterbo rallied to score the last four points to escape with a 25-23 win.

Coach Aasen also said, "We went in knowing we had to be aggressive from the service line to get them out of system but also limit free balls and easy plays. Our goal was to always keep pressure on them."

Viterbo kept their momentum in set three by jumping out to a 5-2 lead, but the Comets roared back with a 6-1 run to regain the lead 8-6. Neither team gained a significant advantage, as the score remained close. A V-Hawk service error put the score at 19-17 Mayville State, but the Comets only scored one more point in the match as Viterbo finished out the Comets with an 8-1 run and winning 25-20.

Cox and Kortan led the Comets in kills with 8 apiece. Elora Passa and Peyton Richter ended with double figures in assists with 18 and 14 respectively. Natalie Hadrava collected 22 digs in the contest and Thyra Peterick added 3 blocks.

"Our block did a great job on getting touches so that we could convert and behind the block we had some big time ups from our defense," added Aasen. "Overall, we showed up how we knew we would need to against a top team, so I was proud of that. We had the lead several times and many opportunities that could've lead to a win but Viterbo was able to minimize their errors towards the end of each set and it turned out to be lethal for us."

The loss drops the Comets record to 11-6, 2-3 in conference play. Mayville State heads south on Friday to take on the Waldorf Warriors, first serve is at 7:00pm.