Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Nicollet senior Julia Rosin (8) tries to tip the ball past the block of Minnesota Valley Lutheran freshman Jennarae Bates (13) on Tuesday night in a nonconference volleyball match at MVL High School in New Ulm.

NEW ULM — After letting a 9-point lead in the third set slip through its fingers in Tuesday night’s nonconference volleyball match with Nicollet, Minnesota Valley Lutheran charged back with a convincing win in the fourth set to win 25-11, 25-18, 26-28, 25-4 at MVL High School.

The Chargers were led by Mackenzie Merseth’s 14 kills, 21 digs and two aces, while Gabbie Bleick had 12 kills, eight digs and two aces. Also for MVL, Jennarae Bates had six kills, four blocks and two aces, Marley Schauer had five kills and four blocks and Kerigan Brau had 28 set assists and 15 digs.

Leah Bode led the Raiders with nine kills, five digs and two aces, while Julia Rosin had four kills, two blocks and two aces, Cason Forbrook had three kills, two blocks and two aces and Savannah Klockziem had three kills, seven digs, two aces and a block. Kamryn Truebenbach added 12 set assists and eight digs for Nicollet and Mia Lambrecht had seven set assists.

Despite a 2-0 lead in the match and controlling the third set with a 9-point lead, things began to unravel for MVL as the Raiders climbed back into it and trailed by 1 late after kills by Lambrecht and Bode. MVL appeared to be back in the driver’s sear later on with an ace serve by Bates giving them a 24-19 lead.

The Raiders tied it up moments later at 24-all, though, and ended up taking the set after back-to-back MVL errors.

“We tried to do a little too much instead of just going with what worked,” MVL head coach Amy Pearson said of Set 3. “And that’s OK. We’re trying new things, trying different attacks, seeing what’s going to work. We’re still adjusting to — what’s our new lineup? Is Jenna going to play middle? Is she going to play right? We’ll see.”

The Raiders have had a tough season and ended the regular season Tuesday with a 2-21 overall mark. But the third set of Tuesday’s match showed Raiders head coach Kris Holicky the team’s ability to battle through adversity.

Unfortunately for the Raiders, they haven’t been able to put enough sets like Set 3 together this season.

“Our biggest problem all year has been consistency,” Holicky said. “We took one from Martin County West, we took one from Granada, we’ve been with a lot of teams. But to stay focused for the whole night has been our struggle.”

In the first set, a Forbrook block had Nicollet down 10-9, but the Chargers came alive to end the set on a 15-2 run, with a kill by Merseth ending the set.

The second set saw MVL open up with a 7-0 lead before the Raiders battled back and eventually cut the deficit to 20-18 late. The Chargers again put together a strong run, however, closing the set with a 5-0 run that saw Olivia Hammer put the set away with an ace serve.

After Nicollet’s comeback win in the third set, MVL poured it on in the fourth early to lead 11-2 after an ace by Merseth, prompting a Nicollet timeout. The Raiders got a kill from Klockziem out of the timeout and an MVL attack error to trail 11-4, but the Chargers ran away with a 14-0 run after that, ending the set and match on an ace from Lexis Meunier.

MVL honored its seniors before the match and Pearson was able to get all of her healthy seniors in-game action at various points in the match.

MVL will travel to take on Waseca in the first round of the Section 2AA tournament on Monday.

The Raiders open the Section 2A tournament this Thursday with a match at Mankato Loyola, a team the Raiders beat in Mankato in their second match of the season.

“Honestly, they’ve come out pretty strong the last couple weeks,” Holicky said of Loyola. “They’ve beat some teams, so we’re going to have to be on our ‘A’ game. They’re not going away, they’re going to be hungry for revenge from the first time we played.”