Staff photo by Ari Selvey Martin Luther college’s Grace Kieselhorst (11) sets the ball to Ella Schlei (18) during an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference volleyball match against the University of Wisconsin — Superior on Friday at MLC.

NEW ULM — In the first set of an Upper Midwest Athletic Conference volleyball match against University of Wisconsin — Superior Friday, Martin Luther College’s Grace Kieselhorst recorded her 1,000th career set assist.

“I just wanted to play to the best of my ability and play with my team,” Grace Kieselhorst said. “I owe it all to my hitters for even giving me that many assists. It’s all on them.”

After the set, the team celebrated with her with signs and pictures and was awarded a plaque from MLC.

“I was very honored by how much love I was surrounded by,” she said. “Both the family on the court and off the court.”

Unfortunately the career accomplishment didn’t come with a win for the Knights as UW-Superior came away with a 25-15, 25-14, 17-25, 25-10 win on the night.

Grace Kieselhorst did have a great individual day, leading the team in kills with 16 while adding 15 set assists, 10 digs and an ace. Lydia Feidt had seven kills and two blocks, while Anna Kieselhorst had 18 digs and an ace. Lauren Paulson had 20 digs, two aces and two bocks.

The Yellowjackets got out to a 6-1 lead to start Set 1, but the Knights were able to fight back with a kill by Feidt to cut the lead back to 7-5. The teams traded points for several serves, and UW-Superior was able to pull away with a 5-0 run to force an MLC timeout. The Yellowjackets continued to roll, despite a trio of kills by Grace Kieselhorst, finishing the set up 25-15.

Set 2 looked similar to Set 1, with the only lead the Knights held in the game coming off of a kill by Grace Kieselhorst to open the game. A timeout by MLC saw the Knights down 10-3, but they recovered enough on two more kills by Grace Kieselhorst to cut the lead back to 16-10. UW-Superior scored the next four points in a row, forcing an MLC timeout, but it was too little, too late as the Yellowjackets took Set 2.

MLC looked sharper in Set 3, with the front row putting up a strong block.

“I think we had some confidence from our kills at the net and our blocks,” Grace Kieselhorst said. “We have some really good blockers on our teams, so I think that really gave us some confidence, got our feet rolling in the right direction, and we kind of took that and ran with it.”

After UW-Superior held on to a small lead early on, MLC was able to tie the game on an ace by Paulson. Grace Kieselhorst’s tied the game again at 11, then an error by the Yellowjackets gave MLC the lead. Kills by Paulson and Ella Schlei helped build that lead, and by the time UW-Superior called a timeout after an ace by Anna Kieselhorst, MLC held a 17-13 lead. A kill by Paulson and two more by Grace Kieselhorst extended that lead to 20-14, and MLC was able to hold on with a pair of kills by Elena Brauer for the 25-17 win.

MLC was unable to keep the momentum up, however, with the Knights only collecting 10 points in Set 4 as UW-Superior took home the match.

MLC (7-20) hosts its final regular season game on Saturday against Northland College.