MANKATO, Minn. – The Bethany Lutheran volleyball team hosted Minnesota Morris on Friday night and the two teams gave the fans a show as the Cougars took a 3-1 victory. With the loss the Vikings fall to 3-11 overall and 0-3 in the UMAC while the Cougars move to 11-4 overall and 4-0 in the conference.
Minnesota Morris showed their firepower in the first set of the match, as they had 17 kills and just four errors in the first frame and cruised to a 25-16 set win. The Vikings came out with an answer in the second set jumping out to a 10-6 lead before the Cougars once again started to click offensively. With Bethany clinging to a 17-16 lead, Morris would score eight of the next nine points to gain a 24-18 edge and would eventually close out the set at 25-21.
In the third, Bethany would flip a switch and it started on the service of
Paloma Garcia De Fuentes as she had two service aces to help the Vikings to a 4-0 run to begin the set. The Viking offense then started to hit its stride, as they went on a 12-5 run in the middle of the set to take a 19-10 lead late in the frame. After extending their lead to 23-13, Morris would score seven of the next eight points but a kill by
Femke Peters would close out the set at 25-20.
The fourth set was a battle from the start, as the two teams traded large runs early in the frame before going shot-for-shot late. With Morris leading 19-16 the Vikings would go on a 6-1 run thanks to three kills from
Lexiss Trygg and a pair of service aces from Peters to take a 22-20 lead and force a timeout from Morris. The timeout proved successful, as the Cougars would come out and score three of the next four points to even things at 23 apiece. A service error would give Vikings set point but a pair of kills from the Cougars would turn the tide and give the visitors set point.
Kate Maag would get a big kill to even things before the Morris defense held strong and forced two Viking miscues to take the set 27-25 and the match 3-1.
Trygg had a huge match for the Vikings, racking up 16 kills, while Maag also had double digit kills with 10. Garcia de Fuentes quarterbacked the offense in this one, dishing out 35 assists, while
Maddi Wendland led the back row with 19 digs.
Bethany is back in action tomorrow at 11 a.m. when they host Crown College.
