The Lady Cougars (34-9), who are the No. 1 seed in the 10-team tournament, posted a 25-14, 25-22, 25-22 win over the scrappy No. 9 seed Fire from Southeastern who are making their first-ever appearance at the national tournament. Junior middle hitter Jackie Albrecht (left) led MVNU with 13 kills, 14 digs, and three aces, while senior outside hitter Julie Haumschild pounded seven kills. Senior setter Kaylin Austen handed out 28 assists, and junior middle hitter Sarah Yutzy led the team with eight blocks. Junior libero Caitlin Myles posted a team-high 20 digs, while senior right-side hitter Courtney Springer and freshman right-side hitter Kaylee Hewitt added 12 and 11 digs respectively.

"It was nice to get a win in our first match,” said MVNU coach Paul Swanson. "(Southeastern) made us work hard in the second and third sets to pull out the victory. We were able to string together enough points at the end of each set to post the win.”

The Lady Cougars returned for the final match of the first day and battled No. 5 seed King (28-11) before falling to the Lady Tornado 26-24, 24-26, 25-22, 18-25, 15-13. After trailing 6-2 in the fifth set, MVNU built a 13-8 lead only to see King score the final seven points of the set to take the match.

Albrecht paced the Lady Cougars with 16 kills and 18 digs, while Springer pounded 11 kills to go with 17 digs and five blocks. Austen handed out 47 assists to go with 20 digs, and Yutzy compiled 10 kills and five blocks. Myles posted a team-best 24 digs, while freshman middle hitter Haley Nofziger smashed a career-high nine kills.

"This was a back and forth match that could have gone either way,” said Swanson. "We did a nice job of rallying back in the fifth set, but then we could just not close it out. The great thing is that we have a chance to come back tomorrow and still earn a spot in the semifinals. We need to come focused and ready to play consistently throughout the entire match.”

MVNU will begin play on Friday at 10:00 a.m. against No. 8 seed Bryan (Tenn.) College, who currently leads the pool standings after posting a pair of wins on Thursday. Then, the Lady Cougars will close out pool play against No. 4 seed Northwestern (Minn.) College at 4:00 p.m. Northwestern went 1-1 in Thursday’s action as did King. Meanwhile, Southeastern went 0-2. The top two teams in the pool will advance to the semifinals on Saturday.

In the other pool, No. 2 seed Campbellsville (Ky.) University and No. 7 seed Spring Arbor (Mich.) University both went 2-0, while No. 6 seed Malone University went 1-1. Both Southwestern Assemblies of God (Texas) University, the No. 3 seed, and No. 10 seed Pensacola Christian (Fla.) College dropped both of their matches on Thursday.