HELENA, Mont. — By Set 5, the Fighting Saints left little doubt. 

With the PE Center roaring, the final block brought fans to their feet and Saints to their knees in jubilation. 

All it took was tightly contested middle sets, bookended by two convincing sets. In the end, it was the Saints in the final set who rose to the occasion, defeating No. 24 Lewis-Clark State College 3-2, on Senior Night in the PE Center.

"The seniors certainly left their mark in the last match in our gym," Saints coach Moe Boyle said. 

Carroll won 18-25, 25-23, 23-25, 25-25 and 15-9. 

Set 5 looked like it might take another neck-and-neck turn, as the previous three sets had. The Warriors won the race to eight points, but after the teams switched sides of the net, the Saints outscored the Warriors 8-1.

A pair of attacking errors gave the Saints a two-point lead. Then Hannah Dean ripped off a pair of kills. Another error gave the Saints a 13-9 lead and then Dean and Lexi Mikkelsen blocked the Warriors away in consecutive points. 

Carroll needed to find ways to finish sets in the middle of the match. 

In the fourth set, Taelyr Krantz spurred the Saints when doubt could have crept in. The Saints trailed 10-6, a slow start that could have spelled doom. Krantz instead served six consecutive points for the Saints to retake the lead 13-10. Krantz finished with five kills, 10 digs and a block. 

"Taelyr Krantz doing some she had some runs tonight both servicing and defensively that kept us in and got us ahead," Boyle said.

In that same set, Boyle inserted instant-energizer Madi Quick, who propelled the Saints' defense forward. 

"Madi Quick was a huge spark plug for us in the fourth set and really brought us back to life," Boyle said.  

While LCSC finished the match with 67 kills to Carroll's 43, the Saints made up for it by doubling the Warriors' blocks, 14-7. 

Dean led all players with eight blocks to go along with 10 kills, a .389 hitting percentage and a dig. 

Ali Williams once again did a bit of everything for the Saints, posting 23 assists, five blocks, 11 kills while hitting .250.

Eighteen service errors cost the Warriors on Friday. 

Before the match the Fighting Saints (15-11, 6-6 Frontier Conference) honored seniors Dean, Jenna Starke and Ayla Carpenter and manager Kelly Armstrong. 

Carroll will be the No. 5 seed in the Frontier Conference Tournament, which begins November 15 in Great Falls, Montana. Their opponent is still to be determined.