ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Bethany Lutheran volleyball team played their final nonconference game of the season on Tuesday night and won a five-set thriller over Hamline 3-2. With the win the Vikings move to 11-12 overall while the Pipers fall to 8-14. 

The first set would play in the Pipers favor throughout the middle portion of the set as they would lead 17-14, but six straight from the Vikings would put them up 20-17. From that point forward Bethany would lead as they would claim a 25-21 set win. 

The second set was all Vikings early as they would go up 7-1 and eventually 16-8 to hold the early advantage. Hamline would then go on an 11-2 run as they would gain their first lead of the set at 19-18. Bethany would once again answer though, as they would score seven of the last nine points of the set including three kills from Maddie Meyer to claim another 25-21 set win and go up 2-0. 

After the Vikings would hold a 16-15 lead just over midway through the second, Hamline would run away with it late, taking the third 25-19 to send the match to a fourth set. In the fourth Bethany would go up 7-4 early but a 6-0 run from the Pipers would turn the tide of the set and they would coast late again to claim it 25-18 and send the match to a decisive fifth. 

The final set was back and forth from the start, with neither team gaining traction early until three straight from Hamline made it 10-7 in their favor. The Vikings would work to cut the deficit to one point, before the teams went back and forth, with the Pipers eventually pushing things to match point at 14-12. A Piper service error followed by a Megan Wegner ace evened the game before a Piper error then gave Bethany match point. Hamline would score two in a row to force match point for them once again before two straight Viking points put them up 17-16. A Piper kill evened things at 17 apiece but two straight attacking errors from Hamline ended the set 19-17 and gave the Vikings the five set win. 

Meyer, Lexiss Trygg, and Lilly Mehrkens all paced the Viking attack as they had nine kills each in the match. Abby Distad quarterbacked the offense as she dished out 33 assists, while Wegner led the back row with 19 digs. Avery Carlson, Distad, and Maddi Wendland also totaled double digit digs with 15, 12, and 11, respectively. 

Bethany will be back in action this weekend when they host Crown on Friday and Minnesota Morris Saturday.