ARDEN HILLS, Minn. – Senior outside hitter Megan Grimes reached the 1,000-kill milestone as the St. Olaf College volleyball team dropped a three-set match (25-22, 27-25, 25-11) to Bethel University and a five-set match (18-25, 25-12, 13-25, 25-19, 15-11) to Mulhenberg College on Saturday at the Robertson Center Gym.
 
With 24 kills over the two matches, Grimes finished the day with exactly 1,000 kills for her St. Olaf career, making her the 10th Ole to reach the milestone since the 1991 season. After Bethel (17-3, 4-1 MIAC) won a pair of close sets to top St. Olaf (13-4, 3-2 MIAC) in the first match of the day, Muhlenberg (12-4) rallied past the Oles by winning the final two sets.
 
Bethel 3, St. Olaf 0 | Box
 
Sophomore Summer Reid had the first of her two double-doubles on the day with 11 kills and 10 digs for St. Olaf, but Bethel used a balanced attack with four student-athletes with at least six kills and hit nine aces to defeat the Oles in three.
 
Sophomore Lexi Wall compiled 34 assists, seven digs and three block assists for the Oles. Grimes was in on four blocks to go with eight kills, while juniors Lauren Rewers and Haley Langeslag combined for 33 digs defensively.
 
The Royals broke a 2-2 tie in the first set with a 7-1 run to prompt a St. Olaf timeout. The Oles gradually climbed back into the set, using a 6-1 run to close to within a point, 17-16, midway through the set with Reid contributing three kills during the run. After St. Olaf took a 22-21 lead, Bethel won the final four points of the set, two on kills by Tina Hoppe, who led the match with 13 kills.
 
St. Olaf overcame a 14-10 deficit in the second to tie the set at 15-15 and edged ahead 17-16 after an ace by Reid. Grimes was in on two blocks and added a kill to help the Oles to a 4-1 run that saw St. Olaf go up 21-18. Bethel won the next three points to tie it up and, after the teams alternated points to leave the Oles up 25-24, took the final three points of the set to go up two sets to none.
 
In the third, the Royals won nine-straight points to take a 12-4 lead early on and led by at least seven points the rest of the way to close out the sweep.
 
Muhlenberg 3, St. Olaf 2 | Box
 
Grimes and Rewers combined for 35 kills in the second match of the day, but Muhlenberg hit .377 over the final two sets to rally past St. Olaf in the Oles' first five-set match of the year. Grimes had 16 kills while hitting .452 and Rewers added a season-high 19 kills for the Oles.
 
Reid recorded 10 kills and 14 digs for her second double-double of the day, while Wall picked up 51 assists. Langeslag made a team-high 15 digs, with Emily Jarnigan tallying 12 digs.
 
In addition to 16 kills from Maggie Enestvedt, six others had between five and eight kills for the Mules, who hit .255 in the match.
 
In the opening set, St. Olaf won 10-of-11 points behind the serves of Langeslag and Wall to open up a 19-9 lead. Muhlenberg closed the gap to just five, 20-15, and stayed within five until a Morgan Marxer kill and an ace by Reid gave the Oles the set.
 
The Mules raced out to a 12-4 lead in the second and stretched their lead to 20-7 with a 6-0 run later in the set. Muhlenberg evened the match at a set apiece after hitting .333 in the set, compared to .000 for St. Olaf.
 
The Oles flipped the script in the third, hitting .545 with 15 kills and just three errors in a 25-13 set win. St. Olaf led just 13-12 before losing just one point the rest of the set to take a two-sets-to-one lead.
 
Muhlenberg posted 17 kills in the third set while hitting .333 to extend the match to a deciding set. A 7-0 run helped the Mules stretch a one-point lead into a 13-5 advantage. The Oles cut their deficit to three, 17-14, but could get no closer as the match went to a fifth set.
 
In the fifth, Muhlenberg never trailed and tallied 10 kills with no errors to hit .455 and complete the comeback.  Trailing 11-7, the Oles won three-straight points to get within a point, but the Mules won the next two to go back up three. After a Rewers kill, Laura Boll had a kill and was in on a block to seal the match for Muhlenberg.
 
St. Olaf travels to No. 11-ranked Gustavus Adolphus College on Thursday, Oct. 4 at 7 p.m.