Pioneers 3... Northwest College 2 (18-25, 26-24, 16-25, 25-8, 17-15)

The MCC Pioneers found themselves down 2-1 after 3 games at home to Region IX Northwest College on Tuesday night. MCC was able to pick itself up off the mat with a dominating 25-8 win in game 4 to force a deciding 5th game and then with dramatic point after dramatic point knock off Northwest College 17-15 in the rubber game of the match. 

Northwest College scored the final 8 points of game 1 after trailing 18-17 to take a 1-0 lead with a 25-18 win. The Pioneers turned the table in game 2 as a back and forth game turned in to a 26-24 Pioneer win to even the match at 1-1. The Pioneers trailed game 2 11-7 before rallying. 

Northwest College quickly took back the momentum and controlled game 3 before winning 25-16. 

MCC didn't waste any time getting momentum back and dominated game 4 25-8 to set up the deciding 5th game. Northwest College defeated the Pioneers in 5 on August 29 in Gillette. 

Game 5 was tight the whole way as the Pioneers had a 8-7 lead as the teams switched sides of the net. MCC took an 11-8 lead before the Trappers tied the score at 11-11. The 2 teams traded blows with some dramatic points as the score was tied at 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 before the Pioneers scored the final 2 points of the match. The Pioneers had game points but were not able to finish off the match at 14-13 and 15-14. 

Offensively, MCC got 15 kills from Johanna Limberhand (Freshman - Hardin, MT) and 12 more from Angeline Riener (Freshman - Fort Benton, MT). Taiya Guptill (Freshman - Hardin, MT) dished out 28 assists and Grace Gackle (Sophomore - Circle, MT) had 2 aces. 

Defensively, Cameron Blevins (Sophomore - Shelby, MT) had 23 digs and Riener had a team high 3 blocks. 

The Pioneers are now 6-3 on the season and will venture out on a 4-game road trip starting on Sunday at University of Jamestown JV. They play at Trinity Bible on Monday night and then open MonDak Conference play on Tuesday, September 16 at North Dakota State College of Science.