CEDAR CITY, Utah--  It was a record-setting night as North Dakota improved to 10-0 in its last 10 five-set matches Saturday evening at Southern Utah in Big Sky Conference play. UND outlasted the Thunderbirds 23-25, 25-20, 26-28, 25-23, 19-17 in a match that featured loads of career bests.

Freshman Courtney Place registered 21 kills while junior Chelsea Moser added 20 and sophomore Julia Kaczorowska chipped in 17-- all career bests-- in the win. Sophomore Sydney Griffin dished out a career-best 70 assists while adding a personal-best 13 digs and senior McKenzie Hart not only set a new single-match record with 50 digs, she also surpassed her last year's total (583) to etch a new single-season digs record (615) with still six matches to play in the regular season.

"We have travelled over 10,000 miles in the past 11 days and to finish with a win is nice," UND head coach Mark Pryor said. "We stayed resilient and that was a huge character builder for us.

"This win guarantees us a winning regular season.  That's a step for us. It's a goal, but we are not satisfied with just that. Now the issue is to see who we have left healthy after a couple more injuries tonight, with one of those possibly very serious. It's  a long season, so we will just have a next person up mentality, and we will get ready to battle next week."

UND (17-10, 5-5) was already without Place Thursday at Northern Arizona due to injury and she was pressed back into duty in Saturday's marathon. The normal nicks and bruises of a long season have begun to mount for this team and having just two road matches left in the regular season could prove vital as it makes a push for seeding in the eight-team Big Sky Conference Tournament.

Without Place Thursday, UND registered just 27 kills as a team in a three-set loss at first-place Northern Arizona. Saturday, the freshman and her teammates piled up a season-best 79 kills as Place took a career-most 69 swings en route to her ninth double-double of the season (21 kills, 11 digs).

While Place set the pace offensively, Moser did the heavy lifting in the final set, recording six kills in the decider alone to give her a new career-best with 20 kills. Faith Dooley picked up her second career double-double with a rare kills/blocks combination that saw her kill 15 balls and block a career-high 11 in the win.

Griffin's 70 assists were just seven shy of a 25-year-old school record and marked the most in the Big Sky Conference this season. She recorded 13 digs as well for her sixth double-double of the season.

The UND offense laid claim to multiple career bests but the spotlight shown on McKenzie Hart's record-setting defensive effort Saturday. Her 50 digs were the second-most ever by a Big Sky player and demolished the school's single-match mark of 41, previously held by Aileen Cahill (2005). With a new single-season record in tow, her sights may now be aimed on both the Big Sky record for digs in a season (768, needing just 153) and UND's career dig record (1,749- just 117 away).

Saturday's match was a classic back-and-forth battle that was nip-and-tuck the whole way with four of the sets won by the two-point minimum and three of those going to extra points to decide it. There were a whopping 44 tie scores and 19 lead changes in the five sets and the overall match lead shifted control as well with UND claiming the final two to rally from a 2-1 deficit.

After SUU (14-9, 5-5) claimed a 25-23 win in the opening set, UND countered with a 25-20 set-two victory to set the tone to the night. UND actually had three set-point opportunities in the third set, but the Thunderbirds erased a 24-20 lead and eventually stole a 28-26 third set.

In set four, UND raced out of the gate, scoring four quick points, all on SUU attack errors-- two on blocks involving Dooley. A very early timeout by SUU helped calm the momentum for bit but North Dakota would build an 18-8 edge. Southern Utah then pieced together an 11-1 run to tie the score. After four more ties, a Dooley kill and a block by Moser and Griffin gave the set to UND and sent it to a deciding set.

North Dakota, despite winning every one of its five-set matches in Pryor's tenure, didn't make it easy on itself in the fifth frame. UND fell behind 4-1 and had to rally by Moser who had a half-dozen kills in the final set. A Dooley block had UND in good position at 14-10, but SUU fought off three match points to tie it at 14-all. It was then UND's turn to thwart a match point, turning a 15-14 SUU lead into an 18-17 advantage before Moser's 20th kill of the night ended the marathon affair than spanned more than two-and-a-half-hours.

North Dakota snapped a three-match losing streak with the win and will play four of its final six regular season matches at home, beginning Thursday with a 7:00 p.m. tilt against Sacramento State.

Notes: Hart missed the Big Sky record for single-match digs by just two (52 by Brittney Stowers, NAU in 2008) ... Hart improved her NCAA-leading digs-per-set average to 6.34 ... North Dakota is now 8-1 all-time against SUU ... UND is 4-0 this season in five-set matches and was 6-0 last season.