DENVER, Colo. — Denver held off a furious comeback by North Dakota State for a 3-2 win (25-20, 27-25, 22-25, 22-25, 16-14) in a marathon Summit League match that lasted 2 hours, 46 minutes on Friday, Oct. 14, before 289 spectators in Hamilton Gymnasium.
 
NDSU (4-3 SL, 6-14) is scheduled to play at Omaha (1-6 SL, 4-17) in Sapp Fieldhouse at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16. The Mavs lost 3-1 to South Dakota on Friday night.
 
North Dakota State dropped the first two matches but bounced back to win the next two, heading to five sets for the third straight match.
 
Emily Miron, Emily Minnick and Hadley Steffen led the comeback as the Bison fought back to the match at two sets apiece. Miron led NDSU with 16 kills and hit .302, while Minnick followed with 14 kills and hit .321, and Steffen recorded her seventh 'double-double' with 13 kills and 13 digs.
 
The Bison led 7-4 on a Miron kill, but Denver (5-2 SL, 13-6) scored four straight to take an 8-7 lead. The fifth set was tied eight times before Kayla Principato and a NDSU error gave the Pioneers the fifth set and match win. Principato connected for a match-high 19 kills and had seven blocks. Emma Willis had a match-high nine blocks.
 
Defensively, North Dakota State came up with 111 digs led by the 31 from Mikaela Purnell, just one off of her career-high. Hannah Jessen record a career best 22 digs, while Brianna Rasmusson added 41 assists and 12 digs.
 
Denver outhit NDSU .183 to .134 and held a 15-10 advantage in team blocks. Monique Domme had 29 assists and Piyusha Boteju added 20, while Cassidy Rooke came up with a match-high 35 digs.