MANKATO, Minn. - Northland College (7-14, 3-3 UMAC) for the second Friday night match in a row came back from behind 2 sets to none to knock off Bethany Lutheran College 20-25, 23-25, 25-23, 25-22, 15-6.

Northland's match with Bethany Lutheran that pitted two teams with conference records of 2-3, which made the match crucial in these early stages for conference standings.  All five sets featured tight competition, but the Jills didn't make things easy on themselves as they found themselves down two sets early in a hostile environment.  Northland would find a way to take the next three sets, and are back at the .500 mark in conference play.

The first set saw the first twelve points split between the teams, when Bethany would go on a run and eventually found themselves up 16-9, and on this night was considered a large lead.  The lead would grow to 19-12, when Northland would rally to attempt to comeback and had the set at a 20-18 disadvantage, with the combo of Alaina Donovan and Kelsey Bodart at the service line, but it was too little too late as Bethany would rally to take the first set.

The second set was more dead locked than the first set.  The teams would be tied nearly every other point, and the largest lead for the set was three when Bethany led early at 4-1.  From then on, it was one or two point leads for both teams.  The Jills just unluckily couldn't find the points late in the set as they dropped the nail biter 25-23.

The third set prooved to be the turning point for the Jills as they would find themselves in the lucky position late, and pulled off the tough 25-23 set win.  The Jills found themselves with a big lead early in the set, but would then lose their touch attacking, momentarily which would let the Vikings back in the match.  In the end the Jills were able to fend off the late rally, and kept themselves from being swept.

The fourth set would also be another tight set, which saw the Jills win 25-22, and gave them a huge amount of momentum entering the winner take all 5th set.  The first part of the set was similar to the second set as the teams traded points to a 7-6 Northland advantage.  The Jills would then find a run to get up 23-14, but the Vikings would not give up the last two points easily to Northland.  The LumberJills saw their lead dwindle to 24-18, then to 24-22, when they were finally able to finish off Bethany after an attack error by the Vikings.

With all the momentum, the LumberJills were easily able to jump out to a quick 10-3 lead, and were able to sustain the lead as Northland found the holes in the Bethany defense on their way to shooting a .238 attack percentage for the set.

Northland was led on the attack by Gabby Jukkala, Alaina Donovan, and Tayler Viegut as they all were able to record 13 kills.  Megan Zynda had a spectacular night for the Jills as she assisted on 48 kills.  Defensively, the Jills had 100 digs as a team, while five different players had double digit digs.  Jukkala led the way with 28 digs.

BOX SCORE

Northland will next travel to Martin Luther for another UMAC road test tomorrow, October 6th,  for a 1 p.m. match start.