That it came against biggest Upper Peninsula rival Michigan Tech made it even better.

And that it went to five sets was even cooler for those watching.

And then that the deciding fifth set went to five extra points before NMU would emerge with the necessary two-point cushion to claim victory made it astounding.

You could even add another level to that victory — Northern kept the Huskies from catching them in the conference standings.

The Wildcats did all that in a 23-25, 25-22, 26-24, 14-25, 20-18 victory, propelling NMU into a three-way tie for third place in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

Northern is now a modest 9-12 overall, but a nifty 7-3 in the league, pulling even with Grand Valley State and Davenport with six more matches left in the regular season.

Wayne State is in second place, one game ahead of triumvirate, while Ferris State leads the way at 9-1.

Tech, meanwhile, slipped back into a tie for sixth place at 5-5 in the GLIAC, 8-12 overall.

This was the Wildcats’ fourth straight win in this big U.P. rivalry, and also on an interesting note, their third straight five-set match, two of them wins — they downed co-league leader Grand Valley State a week earlier before losing to Wayne State on Saturday.

Northern Michigan University’s Sydney Bartels sets the ball during a GLIAC volleyball match played against Michigan Tech at Vandament Arena in Marquette on Tuesday. (Photo courtesy Cara Kamps)

All this came about in large part to the performance of Wildcats senior middle blocker McKenzie Gruner, who hammered down — thank NMU Sports Information for that description — a career-high 24 kills in front of an electric Vandament crowd.

Gruner didn’t just exceed her previous high in kills, she obliterated it. Her old record was 16, the new number 50% more than that, which included six kills in the final usually-abbreviated fifth set. And she was efficient as well, with an attack percentage of an astounding .408.

Gruner also made three blocks, two digs and a service ace.

The match put fans of either team on a roller coaster, with 45 ties and 20 lead changes. And NMU faces match point three times before finally scoring four of the five final points, three on Gruner kills including the last two back to back.

“Even though it wasn’t our best Northern volleyball tonight, I couldn’t be more proud of us for getting it done,” Gruner said following the match to NMU SI in the match report. “There’s nothing better than beating Tech in two fifth sets this year. Also, we’re really happy with the turnout of the fans tonight. It was a great environment!”

The other five-setter over MTU came on Oct. 9 in Houghton when the Wildcats prevailed in the final set 15-11.

On Tuesday, though, while Gruner really WAS a one-woman wrecking crew, in actuality she had some help that showed up in the box score.

Teammate Madison York made 13 kills, Kaysie Bakke had 11 kills and three blocks, and Sydney Bartels made it four NMU players with double-digit kills with 10 as she also had 17 digs and two aces.

Northern’s Liesl Haugen had 28 digs, matching that put up by Tech’s Julia Fledderjohn, while adding two aces and two assists.

Allie Barlow made 59 assists — second highest of her career — along with 16 digs, while Emilia Gulock led the block party with five blocks.

Way back in the first set, neither team had more than a two-point lead throughout, but it was three points scored in a row by the Huskies that put them ahead early in the match.

Northern made some inroads on breaking the deadlock early in the second set, going up 6-2 before Tech got rolling and retook a 14-10 advantage.

That’s when NMU went on a 5-1 run to tie it 15-15. In that spurt, Gulock, York and Bartels each had a kill.

They kept it close until the end of the set, NMU scoring back-to-back points on a Bartels kill and MTU attack error to finish it.

The third set was a collection of streaks, Tech going up 5-1 early, then the Wildcats taking a 12-7 edge. The Huskies answered back to pull within 14-13 but Northern pulled away again to take a near-lock 22-15 lead.

But MTU wasn’t done, scoring nine of the next 11 points, including saving three set points, to pull even at 24-24. Each of the set points were saved by kills from the Huskies’ Rachel Zurek.

Then Northern regrouped and Bakke made a kill to put her team ahead, and a Tech attack error finished the set in NMU’s favor.

In the pivotal fourth set, the Wildcats had early 4-0 and 4-1 streaks to go ahead 10-7. Between those spurts, Gruner had four kills and York two.

Tech was ready with an answer, taking 10 of the next 12 points to go ahead 17-12, then tacked on an 8-1 streak to end the set and force a fifth.

The Huskies had one extra streak early in the final set to go up 10-8, then Northern scored five of six to go up 13-11. That string included a pair of Gulock kills and one by Gruner.

The dramatics weren’t over, with Tech scoring the next three, including two aces by Brooke Dzwik, to get to the first match point, 14-13.

NMU saved that on a York kill, then three match points later, Gruner made a kill one point after she committed an attack error to knot it 17-17.

A Taylor Smaka ace gave NMU match point that Tech saved, then Gruner made her back-to-back kills to turn another 18-18 tie into Northern’s match victory.

With its final four matches at home — the first against league leader Ferris at 4 p.m. next Friday — Northern first goes on the road to stare down ninth-place Roosevelt in Chicago at 7 p.m. EST today, then heads to Kenosha, Wisconsin, to take on sixth-place Wisconsin-Parkside at 4 p.m. EST Saturday.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the match. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.