SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. – The Saginaw Valley State University volleyball team rallied from down 0–2 to win a five-set thriller on the road at Lake Superior State on Thursday night at the James Norris Center. The Cardinals pulled out the reverse sweep comeback with set scores of 24-26, 19-25, 25-11, 25-19, and 15-8.

The Cardinals (8-15, 2-9 GLIAC) hit .265 as a team and finished with 70 kills, nine aces, 71 digs, and 6.0 total blocks. Chloe Vanwinkle (Clio, Mich. / Clio HS) led the offense with a career night: 24 kills on .300 hitting, 13 digs, and three service aces for a double-double, plus one block assist. The kills are a career-best at SVSU while the digs bests her highest mark from last year at Mott Community College. Rachel Townsend (Oxford, Mich. / Oxford HS) followed with 21 kills on .292 hitting to go with seven digs, three block assists, and 22.5 total points. Cola Sisk (Lake Fenton, Mich. / Lake Fenton HS) added nine kills while hitting .471 and chipped in eight digs and an ace. Kendall White (DeWitt, Mich. / St. John's HS) collected 17 digs, seven assists, and an ace. Jackie Scheiber (Wyandotte, Mich. / Riverview Community HS) steered the attack with a career-high 55 assists and added two aces, seven digs. As a team, SVSU out-killed the Lakers 70–49 and closed the match hitting .438 in the fifth set.

Set One (24–26)

Set one swung back and forth with 11 ties and four lead changes. Saginaw Valley built a 16–13 lead behind Vanwinkle, had three kills in a five-point run. SVSU was ahead 22-20 late before the set was tied at 22-22, 23-23, and 24-24. LSSU took the final two with a kill and a block.

Set Two (19–25)

The Lakers started with the momentum but the Cardinals used a 7-2 run to jump ahead 8-6. Both teams would trade punches throughout the set, tying eight more times before a 19-17 lead for Lake State. SVSU got two kills to cut it to 19-20 before LSSU took the next five and had a 2-0 set lead.

Set Three (25–11)

Everything flipped in the third. The Cardinals exploded out of the timeout break and absolutely controlled the set, opening 6–0 on Scheiber's serve. The Lakers tried to claw back, pulling the set to within two points. That's when SVSU surged ahead. A 15-2 run including 10 points in a row put the Cardinals at set point, 24-9. Townsend had five kills throughout the run. LSSU tallied two more points before an attack error gave the set to Saginaw Valley.

Set Four (25–19)

After the most one-sided set of the night, Lake Superior State fought back. The Lakers went ahead 8-6 but the Cardinals wouldn't go away. A 6-2 run flipped the two-point lead and SVSU would lead the rest of the way except for the opening point of set five. A 7-1 run with two kills by Townsend and back-to-back aces by Vanwinkle gave the Cardinals a 21-16 lead. They took four of the next seven points to force a deciding fifth set.

Set Five (15–8)

After an opening kill for Lake State, the Cardinals found their rhythm, hitting their best of the night in the final set. It was tight for the opening portion with SVSU leading by a couple points. A 3-0 run capped off by a Vanwinkle ace gave Saginaw Valley an 8-5 lead as the teams flipped sides. The Lakers took the next two to cut the lead to one, but a 7-1 run for the Cardinals completed the comeback as Townsend tallied three kills in the run.

Up Next: Saginaw Valley comes back home for their final three home matches of the regular season. The Cardinals host Purdue Northwest on Saturday, November 1 for Kids Day. You can get buy one get one free tickets online at svsucardinals.com/tickets with code SVSUkidsday2025. First serve is set for 2:00 PM.