INSTITUTE, W.Va. – The West Virginia State University volleyball team won a five-set thriller against West Virginia Wesleyan, 3-2, on Friday night at the Walker Convocation Center.

The Yellow Jackets improve to 3-1 in the Mountain East Conference with the win while the Bobcats drop to 2-1 in the MEC with the loss.

Junior outside hitters Jenna Dufresne and Gabrielle Bullock each recorded 22 points. All of Dufresne's points were the results of kills and she added 15 digs to help out defensively. Bullock had 20 kills, a service ace, and two block assists to come up with 22 points and posted a .395 hitting percentage. Freshman setter Peri Mertin tossed up 43 assists to keep her outside hitters content.

West Virginia Wesleyan jumped out to an early lead in the first set, 5-1. West Virginia State then gained the momentum with an 11-3 run that put the Yellow Jackets ahead by four points, 12-8. The Bobcats promptly responded with a 6-1 run to regain the lead, 14-13. Points were then traded until the score was deadlocked at 19-all. WVWC ended the opening set on a 6-1 run, 25-20.

The second set went back-and-forth at the beginning, 6-6. At that point, WVSU went on another 11-3 run to gain a six-point advantage, 17-9. The dominant stretch was started by a kill from Gabrielle Bullock and ended with a kill from Peri Martin, with three kills at the hand of Dufresne in between. The tail end of the second set was played evenly until Dufresne smashed home a kill to even the match at one-set apiece, 25-16.

The Yellow Jackets ran away with the third set, 25-11. West Virginia Wesleyan came within one point of West Virginia State, 5-4, before WVSU went on an absolute tear to go up 2-1 in the match.

WVWC went up 21-14 in the fourth set to put West Virginia State's backs up against the wall. WVSU then went on a 6-2 run with three of the six points coming by way of kills from Bullock, 23-20. The Bobcats picked up the next two points to send the match into a deciding fifth set, 25-20.

In the fifth set, the Bobcats had an opportunity to end the match on the next point when they went up 14-13. A solo block by J'Lana Stone evened the match up at 14-all. An attack error followed up by a kill from WVWC pushed the score to 15-all. A kill from Alex Darby before another attack error from West Virginia Wesleyan ensured the victory for West Virginia State, 17-15.

The Yellow Jackets had eight service aces while the Bobcats had eight service errors.

West Virginia State's next match is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 19. WVSU will play Charleston at home. The match is set to begin at 7 p.m.