STORM LAKE, Iowa (February 20, 2021) - The Buena Vista volleyball team got its adjusted fall-to-spring season off to a strong start on Saturday with a commanding 3-0 sweep inside of Siebens Fieldhouse against Luther College (0-1, 0-1 A-R-C).

Junior Sydney McLaren finished with a match-high 11 kills and added 13 digs.  She now has 642 career kills which moves her within 26 of eighth place on the program's all-time list.  Freshmen Rachel Brockney and Bailey Schmidt each followed with seven kills in their collegiate debuts while sophomore Taylor Caves and freshman Kaela White added six.  Caves led the way with a .417 attack percentage and chimed in with four total blocks.  Sophomore Taylor Wedemeyer dished out 37 assists and also added a team-leading 14 digs.  Junior Jade Hays also chalked up 13 digs.  As a team, BVU finished with a .245 attack percentage while holding the Norse to -.018

It was all Beavers from the opening serve of the first set as they jumped out to an 18-8 lead en route to a 25-15 victory.  The second set was much tighter from start to finish.  BVU led the entire way until the Norse took their first lead of the day at 12-11.  They pushed the margin to 14-12 before BVU began to take control.  The Beavers rolled off four straight points to take a 16-14 lead and never looked back while marching to a 25-20 win.

After Luther scored the first two points of the third set, BVU stormed right back with five straight points.  The Norse didn't go down without a fight, pulling back even at 13-13 before BVU got back on track with four straight points and finished things off with a 25-17 triumph.

"Rosie (Aumann) and I couldn't be more proud of this group," said BVU head coach Aubrey Bell.  "Our goal going in was to focus on our side and I though we did a great job of dictating the game by pushing tempo.  We have alot of young talent and are so dynamic, we will look to many freshmen to step into various roles while relying on returners to continue building on our foundation.

Buena Vista (1-0, 1-0 A-R-C) will look for consecutive wins to begin the year when it travels to Nebraska Wesleyan (0-1, 0-1 A-R-C) on Tuesday night (Feb. 23) for a 7:00 p.m. contest against the Prairie Wolves.