ARDEN HILLS, MINN. – The St. Catherine University volleyball team entered Wednesday night's match against Bethel University hungry for its first Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) win of the season. While the Wildcats battled for four sets, they were unable to leave Arden Hills with a victory, falling to the Royals 3-1 (9-25, 25-18, 22-25, 18-25).
 
After a tough 25-9 loss in the first set, St. Kate's rebounded in a big way by winning the second 25-18. Libby Kreuser (White Bear Lake, Minn. / Totino-Grace) was a huge offensive weapon for the Wildcats in the second set, with four kills and zero errors on seven attempts. However, St. Kate's dominated from behind the end line in the second set, as the team's serves forced the Bethel offense out of system. In fact, the Royals only hit .077 as a team in the second set compared to their .407 average in the first.
 
However, the Wildcats had to work for their second set victory. After falling behind 4-2, St. Kate's eventually took a 5-4 lead thanks to a service ace by Kelly Breuer (St. Paul, Minn. / St. Croix). While Bethel was able to tie the score at five, the Wildcats scored the next two points and never looked back. St. Kate's eventually took a 14-9 lead, but the Royals hung around for the next few points, cutting the Wildcats lead to 15-12 over the next four points.
 
Still, St. Kate's kept Bethel at bay with consistency, using timely hitting and serving to extend its lead to 20-15. After a Royal attack error, Emily Neumann (Duluth, Minn. / Hermantown) went on a five point serving run to put the Wildcats up 24-15 before St. Kate's won the second set with a kill from Emily Carman (Maple Grove, Minn. / Osseo).
 
It looked like the Wildcats were going to take a commanding 2-1 lead in the match after opening the third set with an 8-2 lead, thanks to another big serving run from Neumann. Unfortunately, the Royals also went on a scoring run of their own and eventually took a 10-9 lead after back-to-back kills from Emily Kukacka.
 
Despite falling behind, St. Kate's battled for the remainder of the set and fought off three set points at the end of the third set. Unfortunately, a service error by Meagan Schwarzrock (Hutchinson, Minn. / Hutchinson) resulted in a 25-22 win by Bethel and gave the home team a 2-1 lead in the match.
 
The Wildcats tried to force a decisive fifth set with more strong play in the fourth, but sadly, that wasn't in the cards. Although the two teams traded the lead through the first half of the match, the Royals eventually took a 17-13 lead. However, St. Kate's looked like it was going to make another dramatic comeback, as two kills from Emma Nelson (Byron, Minn. / Byron) cut Bethel's lead to 20-15. Sadly, the Wildcat defense had no answer for Royal middle blocker Kristen Stern or outside hitter Tina Hoppe, who eventually led Bethel to a 25-18 set four victory and a 3-1 win.
 
Mackenzie Peper (Osceola, Wis. / Osceola) led the team in kills with nine total on 29 attempts, while Breuer and Nelson each tallied eight. Nelson also tallied a career high 15 digs, and Schwarzrock led the way with 21 assists.
 
With the loss, St. Kate's falls to 6-7 overall and holds a 0-2 record in MIAC play. The Wildcats will return to action on Saturday, when they host Saint Mary's University at 3 p.m. in the Butler Center Gym.