PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania—The Mount Union women's volleyball team defeated Carnegie Mellon, the first time since 2013, in a five-set thriller 12-25, 28-26, 25-22, 11-25 and 16-14 Friday evening at the Carnegie Mellon Quad Invite.
 
Mount Union (6-2) had lost its previous eight games to Carnegie Mellon (6-3), who was receiving votes in the most recent American Volleyball Coaches Association, but behind junior Heaven Bartell's (Cleveland / St. Joseph Academy) 17 kills, 15 digs and two service aces the Purple Raiders pulled out the victory.
 
Junior Casey Kildow (Bethesda / Union Local) led the team in assist with 23 while freshman Melissa Hansen (Hudson) finished with 15.
 
Junior Alexis Meyer (Avon Lake) and sophomore Sydney Mercer (Salem / Beloit) finished with game-highs in blocks with five each.
 
Freshman libero Avery Haley (Orrville) had a game-high 27 digs while Hansen and senior Adrian Petrisko (Elyria) had 12 digs and Kildow finished with 11.
 
Carnegie Mellon was led by Elizabeth Schlemmer with 16 kills, Mindee Lai with a game-high 54 assists and Abby Chen with 26 digs.
 
The first set was all Carnegie Mellon after a tie at five points Carnegie pushed the lead out to 21-6 and finished the set off at 25-12.
 
Carnegie looked to have the moment in the second set as the lead was in favor of the home team seven different times in the set by six points with a lead of 24-18. Mount Union stormed back with six straight points as Haley had two service aces. Both teams battled as Carnegie led 26-25 but an attack error from Carnegie and then a kill from Bartell and Mercer finished the set as the Raiders won 28-26.
 
The third set saw Mount Union get out to a 9-6 and 12-9 lead but Carnegie got a five-point lead three different times from there with the last being a 19-14 lead. Mount Union finished the set on an 11-3 run with Bartell leading the way with four kills in the run.
 
The fourth set went the way of the first set once again as Carnegie took an 11-4 lead early and held on for a 25-11 set win.
 
The fifth set Mount Union came out firing with a service error from Carnegie and then a kill from Meyer and freshman Sadie Thomas (Cambridge Springs, Pa. / Maplewood) to take a 3-0 lead. Carnegie battled back and took the lead 8-7 and extending the lead out to 14-10. Mount Union got a kill from Bartell and Mount Union finished the set on a 6-0 run with a kill from Meyer and Mercer and a service ace from Kildow to take the set and match 16-14.
 
Mount Union returns to Carnegie Mellon tomorrow to take on Westminster (PA) at 1:30 PM and Nazareth at 4 PM in Pittsburgh.