Mankato, MN - The Martin Luther College volleyball team completed a season sweep of Bethany on Tuesday evening, downing the Vikings in a fifth set to come away with the victory
3-2 (12-25, 25-20, 15-25, 25-19, 17-15).
The two teams played a back-and-forth thriller in September, with the Knights winning in four sets. This time around, MLC had to overcome a first set deficit (25-12) after Bethany took command early on thanks to multiple attacking errors from the Knights.
MLC cleaned up the errors in the second set and tied up the match 1-1 with 12 kills in the set.
Both schools would split the third and fourth set, as MLC played one of its more efficient sets of the season, boasting a .538 hitting percentage on 16 kills and two errors in their fourth set win.
The match would come down to a crucial fifth set, where there were six ties and three lead changes. MLC would take the lead at 16-15 following a
Grace Kieselhorst kill and then put the match away when Esther Peeters made an attacking error.
Kieselhorst led the Knights with a career-high 20 kills and was second on the team with 16 assists. Junior
Lauren Paulsen added nine kills and recorded a team-high in digs (13).
Freshman
Ella Walz chipped in with a match-high 25 assists, recording nearly half of the 49 MLC assists.
The win kept MLC (6-13, 4-3) in the fourth spot in the conference standings, while it moved the Vikings down to sixth place.
The Knights will return to action on Friday, October 13, when they square off with North Central for their first meeting of the season. The match is slated to begin at 7 p.m.
