MANKATO, Minn. – The Northland College Volleyball team improved to 3-4 in Upper Midwest Athletic Conference play after winning 3-2 (25-22, 13-25, 27-25, 16-25, 15-8) against Bethany Lutheran College Saturday afternoon. For the first time in 11 seasons, the Jills defeated the Vikings in Mankato.
 
In the first set, Northland went ahead early 7-2, with kills coming from Bailey Wynn, Britta Josephson, and Elizabeth Montgomery and a service ace from Wynn. The Vikings came back taking the lead after six unanswered points. The lead traded back three more times with the Jills regaining the lead for the last time at 23-22 from an Alexa Zadra service ace. Wynn capped off the set with a kill assisted by Megan Van Gheem.
 
Set two, did not go the way of Northland. Bethany Lutheran took an early 6-2 lead, keeping the Jills away. NC pulled within two after Van Gheem set up Montgomery to make the score 9-11. Unfortunately, that was the closest the Jills would get in the second set and after a few more runs BLC took the set 25-13.
 
Just like the second set, the third set started with the Vikings pulling ahead early, unlike the second set the Jills were able to come back. After being down eight points, 22-14 the Jills started to climb back. Wynn capped off a six-point run to make the score 22-20. The Vikings were at set point but the Jills scored five more unanswered points to take their first lead since 4-3 and held on to win 27-25.
 
In the fourth set, the Vikings had their best-hitting set of the match finishing at .333, and the Jills on had their second worst with nine kills and nine errors. This helped BLC to take the fourth set 25-16.
 
 This is the second time this season that the Jills went to a fifth set, falling in their first match. Northland started strong with the first three points, a pair coming from Wynn. The Jills continued to pad their lead with attack errors from BLC and kills from Josephson, Shelby Justman and Montgomery. The final point of the match came from a kill from Wynn leading the Jills to win the match.
 
Wynn tied her season-high of 15 kills in the match, hitting .238. Also reaching double-figures in kills was Josephson with 10. This was her sixth match reaching double-digit kills. Montgomery was behind the pair with eight kills and one behind her was Justman at seven. Van Gheem assisted on 28 points. The Jills had 3 aces coming from Van Gheem, Zadra and Wynn.
 
Zadra recorded a team-leading 24 digs in the match. Van Gheem and Wynn finished with 13 and 12 respectively. At the net, the Jills had their second most blocks in a match with six. Josephson had the sole solo block along with an assisted block. Montgomery assisted on four blocks.
 
The Jills take a step away from UMAC play as they take part in three matches next weekend, starting with St. Norbert College on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
 
Northland College is an NCAA Division III institution located in Ashland, WI. The LumberJacks and LumberJills sponsor 14 varsity sports and compete in the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference, Midwest Lacrosse Conference, and the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.