Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 DECORAH, Iowa - The Bethany Lutheran women's volleyball team Saturday traveled to Luther College for a pair of contests, dropping the first 3-0 to Bethel before rebound with a 3-0 sweep of Luther. With the results the Vikings move to 6-5 on the season. 

Bethel 3 - 0 Bethany Lutheran

The Royals would get out to a quick start in the first set of this one, jumping out to an 11-4 lead. Bethany would cut the lead back to three points in the middle of the set but Bethel would run away with it late, taking the first 25-14. 

In the second set the Vikings would take the early 12-6 lead thanks to a pair of kills from Lexiss Trygg and Lilly Mehrkens to go along with seven errors from the Royals. Bethany would continue to hold that lead until the later portions of the set, as BU would score five of six points to even things at 17 all. The set would continue to stay close from there with Bethany claiming a 22-21 lead late thanks to a kill from Mehrkens, but the Royals would rattle off four straight points to take the second and a 2-0 lead. 

It was the Royals who would take the early set three lead at 13-9, but Bethany would make a run to even things at 16. After the teams would play to a score of 19-19 a few points later, the Royals would rattle off five in a row to bring things to match point at 24-19. Bethany would get two straight to cut the deficit to three but a Viking error would end the match to give the Royals the win. 

Mehrkens would lead the Vikings in kills with 12 while Trygg added seven. Abby Distad led Bethany with 29 set assists while Megan Wegner was the team leader with 12 digs.

Bethany Lutheran 3 - 0 Luther

Game two would be a rematch of last weekend's contest that the Vikings had with the Norse which they dropped 3-2. 

Both teams would trade punches early in the first set of this match as they would work to an even score of 11-11. Luther would then build their way out to a 17-13 lead before the Vikings would go on a huge run. After they trimmed the deficit to two, it was the service of Avery Carlson that sparked a 8-0 run and included two Carlson aces to give the Vikings a 24-18 lead that they would eventually close out with a Trygg kill. 

Bethany carried that momentum from the first set straight into the second as they would dominate from start to finish. They would take it 25-12, posting 17 kills in the frame and just one error en route to a .421 hitting percentage. Mehrkens and Maddie Meyer took over in the frame, with Mehrkens notching seven kills and Meyer six. 

Looking to close out the match, Bethany would be in for a battle in the third as the two teams went back and forth. The Vikings would get their largest lead of the set at 14-11 midway through, before the Norse would come back to take a three-point lead of their own at 22-19. Meyer took over from their though, as the junior would tally four kills and the Vikings would close the frame out on a 6-1 run to claim the set 25-23 and the match 3-0. 

Meyer had a dominant match for the Vikings, posting 16 kills and just one error on 26 attempts for a .577 hitting percentage in the match. Not to be outdone, Lexiss Trygg had 10 kills and no errors on just 19 attacks for a .526 hitting percentage while Mehrkens joined the double digit kill tally with 10. Distad was the distributor for the trio as she notched 36 set assists in the match, while Wegner tallying 17 digs to lead the back row. 

Bethany will next be in action on Tuesday when they head to Buena Vista for a 7 p.m. contest.