Coach Eckheart’s volleyball faced another unbeaten conference team for the second consecutive day, and ended with the same result. Gustavus suffered its second straight loss Saturday afternoon to Bethel 3-0 in St. Peter. The Royals finished the match with 62 kills, including three players with at least 16 kills. The Gusties were led by Jen Thelemann with 11 kills. Gustavus drops to 11-4 with a 2-2 MIAC record, while Bethel improves to 13-2 and 5-0 in the MIAC.
Bethel used a 12-2 run to open game one with a 16-5 lead. Gustavus was not able to overcome the deficit, losing by the score of 30-21. The Royals had a .292 hitting percentage, compared to .122 for the Gusties.
Game two remained close until Bethel tallied seven straight points to go ahead 20-12 with the help of four kills by Liz Glesne. Scoring stayed even for the rest of the game with the Royals coming out on top 30-22.
The hitting intensity picked up for both teams as they combined for 40 kills in the third game. Late in the game Gustavus pulled within three at 25-22, but were unable to create a scoring rally to close the gap. Bethel went on to win the game 30-26.
Gustavus was paced offensively by Jen Thelemann (Le Sueur, Minn.), who finished the match with 11 kills and six digs. Bridget Burtzel (Cold Spring, Minn.) had 25 digs, as Emily Klein contributed 12 digs. Bethel had three players reach double-digit kills, including Liz Glesne with 22, Amy Anderson with 16, and Stephanie Schmidt with 16. Laura Naig dished out 55 assists.
The Gusties travel to Northfield Wednesday, October 3 to take on the Carleton Knights at 7:00 pm.