Morris, MN - The Martin Luther College volleyball team entered Friday night's contest with a chance to split the season series with Minnesota Morris, but were unable to get past the balanced attack from the Cougars, falling 3-0 (16-25, 22-25, 18-25).

The Cougars topped the Knights with efficient hitting numbers on September 30 and replicated that performance tonight with 47 kills, 12 errors, on 105 attempts for a .333 hitting percentage.

After the Cougars pulled away to take the first set 25-16, the Knights would answer back with a tightly contested second set that saw 11 ties and six lead changes. MLC tied it up at 22-22, but Minnesota Morris stringed together three consecutive points to take the 2-0 advantage in the match.

The Cougars then went on a 9-1 run in the third set to go up 20-13, ultimately creating too much distance for the Knights to come back and won the final set 25-18.

Minnesota Morris was led on the attack by Laura Wellbrock, who had 12 kills, while Maggie Jones and Lydia Nash grabbed nine apiece.

Grace Kieselhorst ended with eight kills, while Lauren Paulsen finished with 11 digs and three service aces. Meanwhile, freshman Ella Walz did another solid job of setting up her teammates and dished out 19 assists.

Up next for the MLC volleyball team (8-14, 6-4) is a home match with the No. 4 ranked Northwestern Eagles on Tuesday, October 24. There, the Knights will look to break the Eagles' 73 consecutive set streak in conference play. The match will start at 7 p.m. in the LSC.