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BLC sweeps UMAC volleyball opener
Nicole Jones paces Vikings with 28 set assists
MANKATO — Sue Wilde is happy her Bethany Lutheran volleyball team finally started its Upper Midwest Athletic Conference schedule.
The Vikings opened UMAC play with a 3-0 win over Presentation 25-14, 25-11 and 25-22 Friday at BLC’s Sports and Fitness Center. With the win, the Vikings improve to 5-10 overall.
The losses in the beginning of the year piled up during a pretty tough nonconference schedule that included six matches against teams from the MIAC (considered a more competitive Division III conference).
“We deliberately start with those harder nonconference matches to help us prepare,” said Wilde, BLC’s coach.
Friday against Presentation, BLC had a tough time with the Saints early on as both teams went back and forth in Set 1, but the Vikings pulled away, using a five-point rally to close the set.
“I guess we just had to wear them down because we’re kind of a slow-starting team,” said middle hitter and captain Eva Voss.
Again, Presentation hung with BLC, this time in the beginning of the second set. BLC controlled play but the Saints tied it on five different occasions.
“We have a tendency to start slow at the beginning of a lot of sets,” Wilde said. “Once (our players) get a rhythm going, they feel more comfortable and start attacking more but they were timid to start out.”
Up 8-6, the Vikings rattled off 12 straight points on their way to a 2-0 lead in the match.
The third set contained a little more drama as the Saints held the lead for almost the entire set, building a lead as big as five points at 19-14.
“We did it to ourselves because we had a lot of errors,” Voss said. “Clean up those errors and it was a totally different set.”
BLC found itself up 22-20 after an 8-1 run and didn’t lose the lead as the Vikings took the set and match. Voss led the way for BLC’s offense with 11 kills.
“Every time I play, I go with the same effort,” she said. “If the hits are falling for me, so be it, otherwise I can pull one of their blockers because they keyed in on me as a hitter.”
Nicole Jones had 28 set assists with 11 digs and Kristin Becker added 18 digs for the Vikings.
Becky Smith had nine kills for Presentation, which played just six players on a team that has only seven players on its roster. The Saints fall to 0-10 overall.
The Vikings look to stay undefeated in the UMAC when it travels to St. Bonifacius to take on Crown.
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