NEW ULM, Minn. - The Martin Luther College volleyball team played tough in a 3-0 (25-23, 26-24, 25-18) defeat to Carleton College on Friday to kick off Homecoming weekend.

MLC battled Carleton back and forth throughout the match, but Carleton was able to come away with close wins in each of the first two sets. MLC also came from behind in the third set to cut that deficit to 20-18, but Carleton scored the final five points to close the match with the three-set win.

MLC finished the day hitting .144 for the match, and also tied a season-high with nine service aces. 

Middle hitter Ruth Buchholz recorded one kill in the opening set, but smashed five in each of the next two games to finish with a team-best 11 kills for the match to go with four blocks. Kati Aguilar was also strong on the attack with 10 kills.

Kelsey Birschbach led MLC with 12 digs, while Katelyn Aswege added nine digs and a team-high three service aces. Jewel St. Germaine and Camryn Biebert finished with 20 and 13 assists, respectively. 

MLC fell to 6-19 on the season in defeat. Carleton improved to 11-7 with the win.

MLC will return to action tomorrow (Saturday, October 13) when it hosts UW-Superior in a match scheduled to start at 3 p.m.