The Valley City State volleyball team battled its way to a pair of five-game victories on Friday, knocking off both Haskell and Dakota Wesleyan at the Viterbo University Volleyball Tournament.

The Vikings trailed Haskell by two games to open the day, but stormed back to win the final three games for a thrilling 22-25, 16-25, 25-16, 25-21, 15-13 victory. VCSU trailed 10-6 in the decisive game five before rallying for the victory.

In the second match of the day, VCSU won a back-and-forth battle with Dakota Wesleyan, a team that swept the Vikings just one week ago. On Friday, the teams alternated games but it was the Vikings that won game five, completing the victory by scores of 29-27, 15-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-12.

With the two wins, Valley City State improves to 4-7 on the season and has now won four of the last five matches after starting the year 0-6. The improvement is obvious to head coach Adam Longmore, who is seeing the team improve day in and day out.

"Things are really starting to click and the girls are believing what is being taught," he said Friday, noting the drastic improvement against Dakota Wesleyan in just one week. "Little by little we keep getting better."

Up next: The Vikings continue at the Viterbo University Tournament with two more matches on Saturday. Thing do not get any easier for VCSU, which faces host Viterbo (ranked No. 15 in the country) in the first game Saturday. The Vikings close out the tournament against Ashford.