MANKATO, Minn. - The Bethany Lutheran volleyball team Tuesday used an all-around performance to defeat Martin Luther College 3-0. With the win the Vikings move to 5-14 overall and 3-5 in the UMAC while the Knights fall to 7-13 overall and 3-5 in conference play. 



In the first set, the Knights would jump out to an early 7-4 lead before the Vikings started to push back. Trailing 9-8, the service of Maddie Meyer would put Bethany on a 7-0 run that included two aces from the first-year to give the home team a 15-9 advantage. The teams would trade points late in the set before a Lexiss Trygg kill would end it and give the Vikings set one 25-22.

The second set was back and forth in the early going, with Bethany eventually gaining a 12-7 edge. The Knights would respond with four straight points to cut the deficit to one, but Bethany would match it to push their lead back to five at 16-11. Martin Luther responded again though, scoring five straight this time to even things up at 16 apiece. After the teams trade a point each, the Vikings would use a handful of attack errors by the Knights supplemented by a pair of big kills from Sarah Strom to close the set on a 8-1 run and take it 25-18.

In what became the final set, both teams were trading points early and seemed to be playing their most competitive set when the score was tied at 10 and neither had gained more than a two point lead up to that point. After Bethany took two of the next three points the service of Maddi Wendland proved to be the difference, as the Vikings went on an 8-0 run to lead 20-11 and would close out the set 25-14 to take a 3-0 match victory. 

Bethany posted 25 kills and 11 errors in the match and hit .197 which is a new season-best for the team, while Martin Luther had 26 kills to 25 errors and hit .013. Rilee Hohbein led the Viking attack with six kills, hitting at a clip of .308, while Riley Sammon and Alexis Morsching each added five. Bethany ran two setters during the match, with Paloma Garcia de Fuentes totaling 11 assists and Esther Peeters tallying nine. Morsching led the back row with seven digs while Meyer and Wendland each had four service aces. 

The Vikings will be back in action on Friday when they host Northland in a 7 p.m. contest.