MANKATO, Minn.. – The Bethany Lutheran volleyball team hosted No. 5 Northwestern on Friday night and fell by a score of 3-0. With the loss the Vikings fall to 6-16 overall and 3-8 in the UMAC while the Eagles move to 23-3 overall and 11-0 in the conference.

The high-flying attack of Northwestern showed its strength early in this one as they came out of the gates on fire, hitting .500 in the first frame thanks to 18 kills and just two errors en route to a 25-11 set win.

The second was much of the same from the visitors as they had just one attack error in the set, hitting .545 to claim a 25-9 victory.

In the third, the Viking offense finally started to spring to life, as a Callista Weber service ace would give them a 5-2 lead to open the frame. The Eagles would fire back and scored six of the next seven to take a 9-6 advantage before Bethany came out of a timeout and got kills from Riley Sammon and Kate Maag to cut the deficit back to one. UNW would then score nine of the next 11 points to go up 18-10 before three straight from the Vikings pulled them back within five. The Eagles would prove too strong though, ending the match on a 7-1 run to take it the final set 25-14.

Esther Peeters led the Bethany offense in this one, as she tallied six kills in the match while Lexiss Trygg notched five. Paloma Garcia De Fuentes dished out 17 assists for the home team while also posting a team-high five digs.

The Vikings will be back in action tomorrow when they host North Central for their final home match of the season at 1 p.m.