The Buena Vista volleyball team hosted Martin Luther Monday night for a non-conference match, and the Beavers cruised past the Knights in three sets with scores of 25-11, 25-12 and 26-24.

"Tonight was some good and bad wrapped into one," said BVU assistant coach Micah Rhodes afterwards.  "I thought we came out on fire in the first two sets and really executed our game.  The set distribution was excellent and we were efficient in our hitting and blocking."

BVU started off great offensively in the first two sets but lost their groove a touch in set three. As a team they had attack percentages of .407 and .458 in the first two sets and ended with only seven attack errors and a .341 attack percentage.

Junior Maddie Bardole continues eto be an offensive threat, leading the team with eight kills and just one error.  She now sits just two kills shy of passing Ashley Wilde (1,312) for tops on the program's all-time career kills list. Bardole also had four of the team's six service aces in the match.

Sophomores Jade Schaap and Emily Mathews were right behind Bardole with seven kills each.

Sophomore Laura Berry dished out 19 assists with Kix McArthur right behind with nine.

Defensively, the Beavers held the Knights to a -.031 attack percentage. Hailie Darrow pitched in with a match-high 10 digs.

With BVU winning the first two sets in convincing fashion, it gave assistant coach Micah Rhodes the ability to rotate in several reserves into the match to see significant playing time.  BVU faced set point at 24-22, but rallied back with four straight points to complete the sweep.

"The third set was pretty sloppy," Rhodes added.  "It was a learning experience for the number of people I subbed in, but my expectation level for those players is the same for my starters.  I feel like the focus and energy levels changed, which is something we'll work on - maintaing our level and finishing strong."

BVU improves to 15-8 overall and now travels to Wisconsin Dells for a tournament this weekend. The Beavers will host their final regular season home match next Wednesday, October 21 against Dubuque at 7:30pm.