Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 PELLA, Iowa - The Bethany Lutheran College volleyball team opened the season on Friday night and came away with a pair of 3-0 wins over St. Scholastica and Central. With the wins the Vikings move to 2-0 overall, marking the program's first 2-0 start since 2005. 

Bethany Lutheran 3 - 0 St. Scholastica (25-12, 25-18, 25-20)

The Vikings couldn't have envisioned a much better start to their season, as they would use a 9-0 run on the service of Avery Carlson that included a pair of kills each by Maddie Diveley and Abby Maloney to hold a 16-6 lead. Bethany would continue to press the advantage and eventually close out the set 25-12. 

In set two, the Vikings would slowly build a lead throughout the set and it was in large part due to the play of Lilly Mehrkens. With two kills already in the set and Bethany leading 12-10, the freshmen would put down four more kills to help propel the Vikings to a 25-18 set win and 2-0 match lead. 

The third set played in the Saints favor early on as they would climb out to a 9-6 lead. The Vikings would once again find their stride though, as they would score 13 of the next 17 to hold a 19-13 lead. CSS would rally back late and pull the set to within two points, but late kills by Maloney and Maddie Meyer would seal the match 25-20. 

Mehrkens led the Vikings will 11 kills int he match while Riley Sammon added six. Megan Wegner led the Vikings with 14 digs, while Abby Distad dished out a game-high 27 assists. 

Bethany 3 - 0 Central (25-14, 26-26, 25-16)

The Vikings then matched up with a Central team in game two that went 22-10 last season and returned a bulk of its key players. That experience from the Dutch didn't stop the young Bethany group though as they rolled from the jump of set one, cruising to a quick 25-14 set win. 

The second set turned out to be the most entertaining of the day in any match, as these two teams would go punch for punch and it would take extra points to declare a winner.  Central would be the first team to gain an edge as they went up 10-6 early on. Bethany would slowly cut into the deficit before a Callista Weber service ace evened things at 14 all. The two teams would then go point for point in the late going, until three straight points from the Vikings would make it 24-22. Back-to-back Viking errors would even things at 24 before a service error from the Dutch followed by a Mel Raasch kill would give them the set 26-24. 

In the final set, the two teams would play fairly even in the early going before a 9-1 Bethany run put them up 14-6. They would maintain that eight point lead for a handful of rallies, before three straight from Central would cut things to 19-14. From that point forward it was all Vikings though, as they would cruise late to win the set 25-16 and the match 3-0.

Stats from game two will be updated at a later time.

Bethany will be back in action tomorrow when they take on Buena Vista at 12 p.m. and Grinnell at 2 p.m. at Grinnell.