MANKATO, Minn. – The Bethany Lutheran volleyball team gained their first conference win on Saturday morning as they defeated Crown College 3-0. With the win the Vikings improve to 4-11 overall and 1-3 in the UMAC, while the Polars fall to 2-14 overall and 0-6 in conference play.

After a long and grueling match last night and a quick turnaround this morning, the Vikings got off to a bit of a slow start in the first set, falling behind 8-6. They would eventually overtake the Polars for the lead at 14-13, but four straight from the visitors put them ahead 17-14. The Vikings would respond however, thanks to a 6-1 run keyed by three kills and a block from Kate Maag. Leading 20-18, Bethany would once again surrender the lead as Crown evened things at 21, but four straight points from the duo of Riley Sammon and Lexiss Trygg would end the set in the Vikings favor.  

In the second set, Bethany's attack started firing on all cylinders. The Vikings would gain a 5-4 lead early and never look back as they led the rest of the set en route to a 25-16 decision. As a team the Vikings hit .300 in the set and got five kills from both Trygg and Maag.

On the edge of their first conference win of the season, Bethany jumped out to a 7-1 lead to begin the third. Crown would fight back with a few runs to cut the deficit to three points, but the Vikings would push things back to five points at 16-11. Crown would pull back within three late but the Vikings would end the set on a 6-1 run to claim a decisive 25-17 set win and take the match 3-0.

Maag and Trygg supplied the offense in this one, as Maag had 18 kills while Trygg had 12 and hit an astonishing .550 in the match. Paloma Garcia De Fuentes also posted one of her best career matches with 41 assists, 20 digs, and four kills.

Bethany will be back in action on Tuesday when they head to North Central for a 7 p.m. contest.