Staff photo by Jeremy Behnke Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Julia Schweiss goes up for a hit during Thursday’s volleyball match in Springfield.

SPRINGFIELD — In a back-and-forth match, Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop survived a late scare from Springfield and defeated the Tigers 26-24, 25-18, 18-25, 18-25, 15-11 in a Tomahawk Conference volleyball match on Thursday.

GFW senior Brynn Busse needed just one set assist to earn her 1,000th career assist and she got it early in the first set and finished the match with 35 set assists.

“I had no idea until two games ago that I was even close,” Busse said. “It feels good, I’m excited, my team is definitely 100% behind me and one of my best hitters was there the whole way I was on varsity.”

The hitter Busse was referring to was fellow senior Julia Schweiss, who had 24 kills, four blocks and four ace serves. Sarah Black had 29 digs and Halle Bleick had 15 digs for the Thunderbirds (11-11). Jenna Schweiss had 12 digs.

The Thunderbirds jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the decisive fifth set, but the Tigers didn’t go away. Springfield cut the GFW lead to 12-11 late, but a couple of kills by Schweiss, who had a couple of ace serves in that fifth set, put the match away.

The Thunderbirds looked like they were going to run away with the match early. They led 9-6 early in the first set thanks to some Springfield hitting errors, but the Tigers came back and eventually tied it at 24-24. The Thunderbirds closed it out for the 26-24 win.

GFW then led 12-4 in the second set and went up 20-7 on a tip from Schweiss before closing out the set 25-18.

The Tigers turned the tables in the second and third sets, running away to a 25-18 win in both sets to for the fifth set.

“We just weren’t communicating, it just wasn’t our game for sure,” Busse said of the third and fourth sets.

Tori Roiger led Springfield with 50 set assists and nine digs. Bree Rasmussen finished with 24 digs and Brooklyn Sturm finished with 16 kills and 23 digs. Astrid Ramirez had 12 digs.

Springfield (11-11) is at St. Mary’s on Saturday.