The Chargers were able to do that in the end thanks in large part to an 8-0 run early in the fifth set as they finished the South Central Conference volleyball match with a 25-16, 25-22, 15-25, 23-25, 15-6 win.

The Chargers (7-5, 3-1) were led in the win by Olivia Hammer, who had 14 kills, 12 digs and three aces, while Jenna Bates had 13 kills, 16 digs and two aces. Setter Graysie Black finished with 34 set assists, seven digs and three aces for MVL, while setter Nora Krueger had eight set assists and libero Taryn Gunderson had 24 digs and three aces.

Ellie Kaesermann added nine kills for the Chargers, Marley Schauer had five kills and three blocks and Tori Ringen had three kills and two blocks.

The Wolverines (1-5, 0-4) were led by senior outside hitters Emme Eccles, who had 15 kills and 11 digs, and Bridget Biron, who had seven kills and 19 digs. Kennedy Hahn had 22 set assists and 11 digs, while Anna Colling had 12 set assists, eight digs and two aces. Also for the Wolverines, Maelynn Thoele, Ellie Feterl and Delanie DeWitte each had two blocks.

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Minnesota Valley Lutheran’s Marley Schauer (5) blocks a tip at the net by Sibley East’s Maelynn Thoele (11) during a South Central Conference volleyball match on Tuesday at MVL High School.

Late in the fourth set, the Chargers looked like they’d be ending the night with a four-set win following a 5-0 run that was capped off with an ace by Gunderson to give them a 23-20 lead. But Wolverines head coach Chip Wolverton took a timeout and got just what he needed out of his team to end the set: a 5-0 run of their own.

That 5-0 run saw Thoele pick up both of her blocks in the match, her second finishing the set with a 25-23 win to force a fifth and final set.

“I think we learned a lot from this,” Wolverton said. “The other thing we have to do is we have to be unafraid to win when we have that chance. It was a little bit of doubt that crept in in that fifth set, like, ‘Oh, gosh, we got there,’ maybe a little bit of, ‘Wow, we got to the fifth set.’ And proud of getting there, but not being satisfied with that. We’ve just got to keep the pressure on.”

After exchanging a point to open the fifth set, the Chargers looked more like they did in Set 1 as they went on a 8-0 run to lead 9-1. Late kills from Ringen and Alexis DeVos set MVL up a point away from the match win, which was earned after an attack error.

“I think Sibley East did a really good job of putting the pressure on,” Chargers head coach Johanna Kettner said. “And having to adjust to that, they were hitting us in our campfire a little bit more, so we had to adjust our defense in that regard. It took a little bit to kind of figure things out, but in the end we got it figured out.”

Staff photo by Travis Rosenau Sibley East’s Emme Eccles (3) yells in celebration as teammates greet her following a point against Minnesota Valley Lutheran in a South Central Conference volleyball match Tuesday at MVL High School.

The Chargers never trailed in the first set, going up 20-11 after a 7-0 run. The Wolverines were able to get a few points out of the timeout on errors, but the Chargers pulled away late and finished the set on a kill by Hammer.

The Chargers looked dominant again early in the second set, taking a 7-2 lead early on after an ace serve by Schauer that tipped off the top of the net and dropped down on the other end. The Wolverines tied it up at 12-all after a kill by DeWitte, an ace serve by Anahii Alvarado and an MVL attack error, but the Chargers got an 8-0 run after that to pull out to a 20-12 lead. Wolverton used his final timeout of the set during that run and it lit a bit of a fire in his team.

While they weren’t able to win the set, the Wolverines had a 6-1 run late in the set that ended with a kill by Feterl to trail 23-20. They got within 2, 24-22, on an ace from Colling before a kill from Kaesermann put MVL up 2-0 in the match.

That late momentum by the Wolverines in the second set carried into the third set, which saw them pull ahead 20-8 after a 9-0 run.

“We’ve been working really hard to figure out our lineup and how the pieces are going to fit together,” Wolverton said. “I think by the second set we had some things figured out, and the third set we had it refined a little bit more. I think now we’re at a spot where I think we’ve figured out our lineup, No. 1. No. 2, we figured out that you’ve got to block. We should know Jenna, these kids grew up with her, cousins with our assistant coach. We know we’ve got to block her and we’re just trying to block across too much. I said, ‘Block the ball, don’t let her rip one down the line.’ Once we did that, we started getting hands on it and we figured out our blocking.”

In the end, the Chargers controlling what they could control was enough to get the win.

“Heading into the fifth set, we definitely had to shift our mentality that if we’re going to come out with a win, it has to be things in our control versus reacting to the things that they have in control,” Kettner said. “Us setting the tempo versus them setting the tempo, capitalizing on their mistakes and putting the pressure on them to force them out of system, whatever it may be. I think that mentality shift helped us in the fifth set.”

MVL is at St. Clair on Thursday for another SCC match, while Sibley East hosts a tournament on Saturday.