The Bethany Lutheran volleyball team hosted Northland on Saturday afternoon and dropped a five-set match. With the loss the Vikings fall to 5-13 overall and 2-5 in the UMAC while the LumberJills move to 5-9 overall and 3-4 in the conference.
The Vikings got out to a sluggish start in the match with Northland taking a 9-3 lead early in the frame. Bethany would answer with a big run on the serve of
Paloma Garcia De Fuentes to gain a 16-15 lead before eventually extending that lead to 22-19. The Vikings couldn't close things out though, as the LumberJills scored six straight to end the set and take a 1-0 lead.
Bethany responded strong in the second frame, as they cruised out to an early 11-5 lead and continued to build on it throughout the set to take a 25-13 win.
The third set seemed to be going the same route as the first as the Vikings would get out to a 12-5 lead to get things going. They would push that lead to 22-14 and seemed to be running away with the set before five straight attack errors from BLC spurred a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to two for Northland. Bethany would then gain two points to push the game to set point at 24-20 before five straight points from Northland gave them a one-point lead. The Vikings would get a kill to even things but the LumberJills would score two straight to steal the third set and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
With their backs against the wall Bethany came out strong in the fourth set, once again controlling things from start to finish as they took a 25-16 set win to send things to set five.
After Northland would get out to a 3-2 lead in the third, they would score eight of the next 11 points to push their lead to 11-5. Bethany would cut the deficit to five at 13-8 but two straight kills from Northland ended the set and the match.
The Vikings were solid on the attack, notching 60 kills as opposed to 44 from Northland.
Kate Maag and
Riley Sammon led Bethany on the offensive with 15 kills apiece with Maag also adding six blocks.
Lexiss Trygg matched Maag with six blocks to go along with 13 kills, while
Esther Peeters had a solid day with 10 kills. Garcia de Fuentes had a career day as she dished out a career-best 52 assists in the match, while
Maddi Wendland had a big day in the back row with 27 digs.
Callista Weber, Garcia de Fuentes, and Peeters also had double digit digs for the Vikings with Peeters also adding a team-most four service aces.
Bethany will be back in action on Tuesday when they host Martin Luther College at 7 p.m.
