ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – The Bethel University volleyball team was challenged with a pair of five set matches Saturday afternoon closing out the Bethel Invitational inside the Robertson Center. The Royals dropped the day's opener to St. Norbert 3-2 by scores of 11-25, 28-26, 23-25, 27-25, 20-18. In the night cap, BU went toe-to-toe with Minnesota-Morris before the Cougars got revenge from Tuesday's contest wining in five sets by scores of 21-25, 25-19, 25-14, 21-25, 15-9.

Once again it was junior Maria Claflin leading the attack at the net with a combined 30 kills. Claflin led the Royals against St. Norbert with 18 kills before adding 12 against Morris. Sophomore Hannah Wilhite distributed a combined 63 assists while junior Ellie Hoyt tallied 39 assists. Wilhite added 14 kills against St. Norbert while Junior Macie Gavic added 12. Against UMN-Morris freshman Kelsie Sealock hit double digits in the kill column with 10.

Dropping to 5-4 on the season, Bethel takes on its first conference opponent in the College of Saint Benedict Wednesday, Sept. 18 inside the Robertson Center. First serve comes a 7 p.m.

BU opened the day with a convincing 25-11 set one victory the Green Knights. St. Norbert came right back at the Royals never giving up the lead in the second despite six ties outlasting BU 28-26. The deeper the match went the tighter it got between the Royals and Green Knights. BU fed off the serve of senior Dominique Dabu scoring six in a row making it 17-7 before an ace by Wilhite and a kill by Emily Rossing put BU up two sets to one. Another marathon set taken by the Green Knights (28-26) set up decisive fifth. St. Norbert jumped to a 7-4 lead before the Royals responded on a kill from Gavic giving BU an 11-10 lead. Long rallies filled the rest of the way as the ball fell the Green Knights way where they took it 20-18.

It took five sets once again to decide a winner between the Royals and Cougars – the fourth time in the last six meetings of the all-time series – this time it was Morris who came out on top. Bethel controlled the first set out hitting the Cougars .200 to .068 for a first set victory, 25-21. Morris, who was coming off a five set victory over UW-Stout dug deep evening the match at a set a piece with a strong second set. Fatigue set in for the Royals to go along with not finding a rhythm at the net as Morris hit .278 taking the third 25-14. The Royals dug deep in the fourth finding a way to gut one out. With Claflin controlling the serve Bethel rattled off five straight taking a 12-7 lead and never looking back in the fourth. It all came down to the fifth where the Cougars set to the tone with an 8-1 run. The Royals inched their way back but could not overcome the early deficit.