GRINNELL, Iowa – When two of the top teams in the Midwest Conference meet in a volleyball match, plenty of excitement can be expected.
 
And that's exactly what participants and fans alike enjoyed Friday night, as the Pioneers won a marathon five-set thriller over St. Norbert College for their second-ever victory over the Green Knights. St. Norbert entered the match with a 23-1 series lead over Grinnell, with the Pioneers' other win coming in 2010.
 
Grinnell rallied to win by scores of 14-25, 25-17, 14-25, 25-21 and 15-7 in Darby Gymnasium to improve to 6-2 in the league for the first time since 2011. Grinnell moved to 15-13 overall and inched ever so close to its third MWC Tournament berth in a row. St. Norbert dipped to 5-2 in the MWC and 9-14 in all matches.
 
Grinnell's Kaylin Kuhn '21 had another big effort at the net with 18 kills to go along with 16 digs. Sophia Carbajal '21 and Hannah Taylor '21 each had career-highs of five blocks. Taylor also had 14 kills, while Julianna Roth '22 tallied 45 assists and two aces. Payton Lowrey '22 contributed 18 digs and two aces, while Madison Smith '20 came up with 22 digs.
 
After losing the first set, Grinnell got off to a great start in the second with a three-point service run by Roth that included an ace. The Pioneers continued to roll, going up 14-8 and sailed from there. Kuhn served the final three points, the final coming via an ace.
 
But the Green Knights bounced back to take the third set for a 2-1 edge. The fourth set was nip and tuck the whole way. After Grinnell fell behind 18-16, St. Norbert had consecutive attack errors to tie it.
 
St. Norbert later went up 20-18, but Kuhn had a kill and the Green Knights an attack error to force another tie. The Green Knights went up 21-20 when Grinnell went to work. Kuhn had a kill to tie things and Roth served the final four points and had a kill in that span as did Kuhn.
 
The final set was tied 1-all, but Kuhn had a kill and St. Norbert a bad set to push the hosts up by two. The Green Knights tied it at 4-all before Grinnell delivered the devastating blow with a 7-0 run. Smith served six of those points and Taylor came up big with three kills and Kuhn one.
 
St. Norbert got only as close as five points before Emma Willhardt '19 pounded down a kill and Kuhn two more to send the Pioneers into celebration.
 
Willhardt moved up to second on Grinnell's career solo blocks list with 95 and is eighth in total blocks with 238. Smith is fourth on the all-time season digs chart with 401, while Lowrey is eighth in aces with 48 and Kuhn 10th in attack attempts with 1,032.
 
As a team, Grinnell's 211 aces rank seventh all-time at Grinnell, the 3,723 attack attempts are eighth and the 1,218 kills are ninth.
 
The Pioneers are back at Darby Saturday with a home match against Lawrence University. Action begins at 1 p.m.