ADRIAN, Mich. — The Pilots ended the Siena Heights Invite undefeated after a sweep against the Calumet St. Joseph Crimson Wave (0-7) and outlasted the Lawrence Tech Blue Devils (9-3) to go 4-0.
VS CALUMET ST. JOSEPH
The Pilots didn’t have many issues with the Crimson Wave not allowing more than 11 points in a set and took advantage of a negative hitting percentage for CSJ. Bethel landed 11 aces with Lily Vester leading the Pilots with three of them. Bethel had their largest set win margin of the season at 17 points after their second set victory of 25-8.
Ainsley Tacke tallied 11 kills on 18 attempts and Maddy Payne had nine kills for the Pilots.
VS LAWRENCE TECH
Payne had 12 kills and seven blocks for the Pilots in another great performance along with Ainsley Tacke’s third straight 10+ kill match and sixth of the season.
Bethel was up at the end of the first set 20-13 and the Blue Devils went on a big 6-0 run to chip the Pilot lead to 20-19 but Bethel answered with four straight points at 24-19 then Breyana Bosket sealed the set win with a kill 25-20.
The second set was tied seven times with crunch time happening at 21-19 when Michaela Whitaker scored on a kill and the combined effort of Tacke, Bosket, and Payne helped the Pilots secure set two 25-22.
Paige Franz landed an ace to force extra points in the third set, in which mistakes on both sides tied the set 26-26 but a set error then Blue Devil ace put the match at 2-1 BU advantage.
The fourth set was down to the wire again 18-18 in the fourth until the Blue Devils took advantage of a few Pilot mistakes to rise to 24-20 LTU before the final kill was made to tie the match 2-2.
BU kept a two-point advantage in the final fight for the match and the Pilots won the match 3-2 and ended the Siena Heights Invite undefeated 4-0.
NEXT TIME OUT
The Pilots start the Crossroads League campaign with the Mount Vernon Nazarene (Ohio) on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at 7 p.m. in the Weikamp Athletic Center.