HOUGHTON, Mich. – Madison Thompson posted a career-high 16 kills at Michigan Tech on Friday evening, but it wasn't enough as the Saginaw Valley State University volleyball team suffered a 3-1 setback to the host Huskies in the Student Development Gymnasium. MTU, which moves to 11-6 on the season, prevailed 25-23, 25-21, 19-25, 25-21.

The Cardinals fall even to 9-9 overall. Both schools are now tied with 5-5 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference records.

How it Happened:

• The Cardinals fought back from a 14-9 deficit in the first set before tying the score 16-all on Madison kill.
• The teams would trade points the rest of the way with each holding no more than a two-point lead.
• A kill by Sarah Veale (7 kills, 17 digs) gave the Cardinals a 21-20 lead.
• After the Huskies scored three straight points to go up 23-21, the Cardinals took advantage of a pair of MTU errors to knot it at 23.
• But the Huskies regrouped and took the next two points to secure the two-point set win.
• In the second set, SVSU raced out to leads of 4-0 and 10-5 before Tech came back to go up 14-12.
• Like late in the opening set, the teams then traded blows with SVSU enjoying a 21-20 lead after a kill from Makaylah Roberts.
• The Huskies, however, went up two-sets-to-none after a four-point run.
• The Cardinals pulled within 2-1 in the match after taking a 25-19 win in the third set.
• In that frame, SVSU outhit MTU .350 to .154 to get some momentum going into the fourth.
• The first half of the fourth stanza saw neither team leading by more than two points.
• At 12-12, Tech went on a five-point run and never looked back after that.
• After trailing 21-14, the Cardinals managed to pull within 23-21 only to see the Huskies close out the match by taking the final two points.
• For the match, Tech held a slight advantage in attack percentage (.175 to .164) and the Huskies kept alive many rallies with 101 digs to 79 for the Cardinals.
• Both teams were strong defensively at the net with SVSU totaling 11 blocks and Tech had seven.

 Inside the Box Score:

• Thompson tied the Huskies' Jillian Kuizenga with the 16 terminations, while teammate Rylee Zimmer also had a solid outing with 15 kills, 11 digs and four total blocks.
•  Peyton Gerstacker was three kills shy of a triple-double for the Cardinals, amassing 41 assists and 14 digs.
• Kelsey Vittitow led three SVSU teammates with double-digit digs with 18, followed by Veale, Gerstacker and Zimmer.
• Teammate Patricia Pratt led all student-athletes with five total blocks.
• Carissa Beyer had a match-high 35 digs for the Huskies.

Up Next:

Saginaw Valley stays in the U.P. on Saturday when it will square off against Northern Michigan for a 4 p.m. matinee.