The NJCAA Division II nationally ranked Bismarck State Mystics cruised out to a 2-0 lead in Miles City on Tuesday night before the Pioneers feverishly rallied back to force a game 5. The 5th game was all Mystics as they jumped out to a 6-0 lead and held off the scrappy Pioneers 15-8 to take the MonDak Conference match. The Mystics moved to 7-1 in MonDak play and sit one loss behind league leading NDSCS. The Pioneers fell to 4-2 in conference play and 4-5 overall. The two teams go at it again tonight in Bismarck at 6:00 PM MST. 

Service errors were the achilles heel for the Pioneers in games 1 & 2. A plethora of service errors led the Mystics taking game 1 25-21 and game 2 25-16. Things were looking bleak for MCC before they rallied the troops and got back in the match with a game 3 win of 25-23. Game 4 went much the same way for the Pioneers as they held on to force game 5 25-22. With the crowd rocking and looking at an upset, Bismarck State took control of the 5th game with a commanding 6-0 lead and stayed the course to preserve the victory. 

The Pioneers were led by Olivia Easton (Billings, MT) with 18 kills and Matilda Dietz (Manhattan, MT) with 26 digs. Freshman setter Mandi Tvedt (Glenrock, WY) added 23 assists and 2 aces in the loss. Cassidy Acor (Havre, MT) had 3 blocks on the night.