NEW ULM, Minn. - The Martin Luther College volleyball team was unable to close out Northland College in a 3-2 (17-25, 26-24, 17-25, 25-22, 15-12) defeat in Saturday's Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) opener. 

The Knights jumped out to big early leads in the first and third sets to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

The Lumberjills were able to build momentum with a late rally in the third set, and used it to hold off the Knights 25-22 to force a fifth and final game. 

MLC jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the final set, but errors proved costly as the Knights recorded seven hitting errors and were called for two other in the net errors in the set, helping the Lumberjills secure the win.

MLC hit .166 in the match compared to .071 for the Jills. Kelsey Birschbach led the Knights on the attack with 19 kills to go with 17 digs, while Kaylie Solomon, Abigail Winkel and Rhianna Hunter each recorded nine kills. 

Kylie Wolf led MLC with 33 assists. Kate Aswege finished with a team-best 24 digs. 

MLC fell to 2-1 on the season and 0-1 in UMAC play in defeat. Northland improved to 1-2 overall and 1-0 in league play with the win.

The Knights will return to action on Thursday, March 11, when they travel to Bethany Lutheran for a match scheduled to start at 7 p.m.