Photo by Jake McNeill: Southwest Minnesota State University’s Mya Krystosek (1) celebrates alongside teammates Paige Steinmetz (14) and Karli Arkell (right) after Krystosek hit the match-winning kill during the Mustangs’ Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference volleyball match against Concordia-St. Paul in SMSU’s PE Gym in Marshall on Friday. The five-set victory was SMSU’s first over Concordia-St. Paul under head coach Tyler Boddy.

MARSHALL — The No. 17 Marshall volleyball team earned its first win over Concordia-St. Paul when the two met for a Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference match on homecoming weekend Friday night. The Mustangs and Golden Bears battled back and forth for a full five sets, but the Mustangs in the end came away victorious with a 19-25, 25-16, 29-27, 18-25, 15-13 win.

The win was SMSU’s first over the Golden Bears in Tyler Boddy’s tenure as head coach of the Mustangs. The last victory before Friday came in 2021, a year before Boddy took over. The win also brings SMSU back to .500 in conference play after it dropped back-to-back five-set matches against St. Cloud State and Minnesota State last weekend.

“We’ve been trying to preach to them that we can beat anybody in our league on any given night,” Boddy said. “To me, our team was able to prove that… It’s going to be punches back and forth, but we were able to kind of ride the waves better than we have been doing in those tight games and we were able to do that tonight.”

Outside hitter Mya Krystosek said that heading into Friday’s match, the Mustangs were looking to continue just putting together a “next-point mentality,” adding that there’s nothing they can change now about past losses so they want to just continue trusting and playing for each other to try to string together wins.

SMSU built momentum early in the deciding fifth set. Leah Jones started the set with a forceful kill and Karli Arkell and Natalie Pilney put up blocks on consecutive points to give the Mustangs the first 3 points of the set.

Boddy attributed the early momentum of the second set to the Mustangs trusting each other and their roles on the team, adding that Jones was able to heat up with her play on the block and some big swings late in the match after a slow start.

“Nobody played perfect. We don’t need them to. We just need them to keep believing and trust that we can do it and play hard throughout the highs,” Boddy said.

After the Golden Bears answered, a Krystosek kill and a Golden Bear hitting error gave SMSU a 5-1 lead. Yet, the tie turned quickly as the Golden Bears capitalized on three SMSU attacking errors to score 5 of the next 6 points and tie the set.

A Krystosek kill and a setting error by Mehlayna Straub prompted the Golden Bears to call a timeout trailing 9-7. A pair of kills helped SMSU build that lead up to 12-9, though a Thein setting error prompted SMSU to call its timeout leading 13-11.

Out of the huddle, Krystosek slammed down a kill to set up match point at 14-11. The Golden Bears weren’t ready to give up yet, however, as a Paige Steinmetz service error and a Makenna Nold kill brought Concordia back within a point. Still, Krystosek slammed home the match-sealing kill to finish off the Mustang victory.

“It was a good team effort. I feel like that entire game, we battled together and we battled as a team,” Krystosek said of the final point. “We trusted each other every single point, and it just happened to be the set that I got.”

Krystosek finished the night with three service aces 17 kills on a .333 hitting percentage, trailing only Jones’ 18 on a .148 hitting percentage. Ashley Peltier also contributed 12 kills on a .231 clip while Arkell and Pilney each added another nine.

Neither team could gain an inch of breathing room early in the fourth set with SMSU on the brink of a four-set victory.

Just when Concordia-St. Paul jumped out to a 4-1 lead, the Mustangs went on a 5-0 run with a kill and block from Natalie Pilney, a pair of kills from Jones and Peltier, and a service ace from Sydney Thein to take the lead. Thein finished the match with 59 set assists with two setting errors.

Still, Concordia rallied right back ahead with a 4-0 run of their own. The two teams remained locked in a stalemate until, with the set tied at 11 points apiece, Concordia-St. Paul went on a 5-1 run to give itself some leeway.

The Mustangs called a timeout trailing 18-13 and generated some momentum out of the break with kills from Peltier and Krystosek, but it wasn’t enough as the Golden Bears staved off the Mustangs to force a fifth set with a 25-18 win.

Pilney and Peltier set the tone defensively up front for the Mustangs. Pilney logged six block assists and an ace block while Peltier added another five block assists. In the back row, libero McKenzie Tolk finished with 22 digs while Krystosek and Kennedy Drake contributed 17 and 11, respectively. Concordia-St. Paul finished the match with a .257 hitting percentage as a team while SMSU hit .239.

The match was Krystosek’s third in a row with at least 17 digs, including a 22-dig outing against Minnesota State last week. Krystosek attributed her recent efficacy on defense to being stopped but ready to move, adding that the blockers up front have gotten a lot of good touches up front to allow the back row to get more opportunities to hit the ball in transition.

The bulk of the third set was controlled by SMSU. Concordia-St. Paul trailed by as many as 5 points, 13-8, when it started to shift momentum in its favor.

Concordia started to turn the tide with a kill from Kaelyn Snoozy, a service ace from Audrey Waterman and an SMSU attacking error. After the Mustangs answered with a pair of points, Kelsey Cooper combined for a pair of blocks with Nold and Ellie Sieling and Natalee Rolbiecki served up an ace to tie the game up at 15-all.

Rolbiecki, a Minneota High School graduate who played her first two seasons of college volleyball with SMSU before transferring last season, led Concordia-St. Paul with 19 digs in the match, followed by 18 from Ellie Sieling and 17 from Cassie Sieling.

Trailing 21-19 late in the set, SMSU found a new gear to get back into the game. Krystosek came up with a kill and an ace to tie up the set, and the teams alternated 1-point leads to extend the game.

Leah Jones came up with a pair of clutch kills to set up game point with the Mustangs leading 24-23, but Nold responded with a kill for the Golden Bears. The two teams alternated points from there until an Arkell kill gave SMSU the lead and Krystosek claimed the set with a service ace for a 29-27 win.

Nold led the Golden Bears with 25 kills on a .288 hitting percentage while Ellie Sieling and Snoozy added 17 and 11, respectively. Reagan Hickey was the team’s primary facilitator with 37 set assists while Waterman tallied another 21.

Krystosek said that after facing a 1-0 deficit after the first set, the Mustangs were able to claim the next two games by playing fearlessly and relentlessly while maintaining their trust in each other.

“They’re a great team, so we knew that we were going to come into this game where we would play point-for-point,” Krystosek said. “When we got into those situations, we just knew that we had to side-out that ball and we just really put focus on that the entire week.”

Pilney helped SMSU get off to a strong start in the third frame with four kills and a block with Peltier to make the score 10-5.

After building some late momentum in a first-set loss, the Mustangs found a rhythm in the match’s second game. They jumped out to a 3-1 lead and continued to build up a 5-0 run on two kills from Jones and another from Peltier.

SMSU steadily maintained a lead of around 6 points from there, with a trio of kills from Krystosek bringing the lead to its peak at 22-12 before SMSU settled for a 25-16 win.

Concordia-St. Paul got off to a hot start in the first game, winning each of the first 10 points of the set before Jones broke up the run with a kill.

As the set progressed, SMSU kept pace with the Golden Bears but never got back within striking distance. The Mustangs got within 4 points when an Arkell kill made the score 23-19, but Concordia called a timeout and claimed each of the next 2 points to win the set.

“Honestly, we didn’t talk about it,” Boddy said of the break after the first set. The team just moved on after showing good competitive spirit toward the end of the set. “We got it back to within 4 [points], which showed me that we were ready to play in game 2. It was too far gone at that point, but we at least competed at the end.”

SMSU improves to 11-4 on the season and 4-4 in the NSIC with the win, and takes on Winona State (10-6, 5-3 NSIC) today at 2 p.m. in the PE Gym.