MANKATO, Minn. – With the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference (UMAC) outright regular season championship in hand, the University of Northwestern may have taken Bethany Lutheran College a little too lightly on Saturday afternoon, but the Eagles came back to escape with a 3-2 win to finish the 2014 season league slate unbeaten. Trailing 2-0 on the scoreboard, UNW stormed back with a renewed focus to win the final three sets.

Bethany Lutheran, who was playing its final game of the year, found itself riding the coattails of senior Caitlin Decker, who gave UNW fits with five kills in both the first and second sets, which the Vikings won in 25-19 and 25-23 fashion. But the Eagles, who defeated BLC 3-0 on October 4, turned on the heat and won the remaining rounds 25-13, 25-15, and 15-6.

Northwestern's Faith Vander Galien (Chanhassen, Minn./Southwest Christian) put down five kills in the third set with Lydia Palkert (Excelsior, Minn./Southwest Christian) adding six in the fourth as the Eagles turned initial .042 and .074 hitting rates in the first two rounds into .324 and .417 in Sets 3 and 4. Cue the decisive fifth set, when Cari Miller (West Des Moines, Iowa/Valley), who recorded her 1,000th career kill on Friday against Martin Luther, accounted for three of UNW's nine kills and .533 attacking percentage to help the Eagles wrap up the round, and match, with a nine-point win.

The late-match push put Northwestern at a .214 rate for the day with four different players finishing in double digits for kills. Palkert led the Eagles with 15, two more than Miller's 13 as Lizzy Jonas (Neenah, Wis./Valley Christian ) collected 30 assists on the afternoon. Defensively, Lindsey Peterson (Sheffield, Iowa/West Fork) had a team-high 28 digs.

Decker finished with 18 kills for Bethany Lutheran, whose 2014 campaign ends at 7-19 overall (6-8 UMAC).

Northwestern will now shift its focus to Wednesday of next week, when the top seeded Eagles will host No. 4 Martin Luther in the opening round of the UMAC Tournament. UNW won both regular season matches against the Knights, but MLC snagged a set from the Eagles on Saturday, meaning Wednesday's 7 p.m. first serve is anything but a lock for Northwestern.