Kanani Auwae pounded home 24 kills Friday night as the Valley City State volleyball team survived a thrilling five-set match against Presentation College – winning 23-25, 27-25, 25-13, 25-27, 15-13.
Trailing 13-12 in the fifth set, the Vikings closed the match by scoring the final three points, punctuated by an ace from Auwae and a block by Chelzie-Kristina Ulu to end the match.
Valley City State improves to 7-6 overall and is now 2-0 in North Star Athletic Association conference play. The Saints drop to 6-7 overall and 0-1 in the NSAA.
Momentum swung back and forth between the two teams throughout the night at VCSU's Graichen Gym. After Presentation College pulled out a 25-23 win in set one, the Saints kept the momentum going and built a 20-12 lead in set two. But the Vikings rallied back to within 23-20 and then kept the momentum going as they staved off one set point and finished with a 27-25 victory on a Rachel Hummel ace.
It was all VCSU in the third set as they rolled to a 25-13 victory. The Vikings built a comfortable 21-14 lead in the fourth set before the Saints scored 9 of the next 11 points to tie it at 23-23. The Saints held off one set point by the Vikings, and then scored the final two points to win 27-25 and force a fifth set.
In set five, the Saints led 11-7 before the Vikings scored five of the next six points to tie it at 12-12 en route to the 15-13 clinching victory.
Auwae had a monster night for the Vikings, recording 24 kills and 16 digs. She committed just three errors in 49 attacks, and hit .429 for the match.
True freshman Seri Geisler came up big for the Vikings as well, recording 13 kills and two block assists. Ulu finished with 10 kills and five block points and hit .318 in the match. Rachel Hummel added six kills, four aces and two blocks. She hit for a .462 attack percentage. Autumn Johnson also had six kills and hit .385 in the match.
The Vikings out-hit the Saints .270 to .130 on the night, and also out-blocked the Saints 9-6.
Presentation College was led by 14 kills and 17 digs from Taylor Orhn. Mallori Rabenberg had 13 kills and 12 digs, and Karly Fuhrman tallied 10 kills in the loss. Abigail Wahl had 27 assists, and three Saints had two service aces each.
Steph Miller tallied 43 assists for VCSU. Taylor Balkan added 14 assists and eight digs. Libero Jaycee George led the Viking defense with 23 digs.
Up next: VCSU (7-6, 2-0 NSAA) hosts Dakota State at 2 p.m. Saturday in another NSAA match.
