College football

MLC 44, UM-Morris 14

MORRIS — The Martin Luther College football team scored 44 unanswered points en route to a 44-14 win at University of Minnesota Morris (UMM) in Saturday’s UMAC opener.

The Cougars scored on their opening drive and then recovered an onside kick on the ensuing kickoff, but it was all MLC from that point.

The Knights finished the game with 487 yards rushing on 60 carries. DeNoyer led the way with 218 yards and three scores on only 12 carries, while Nordlie ran for 128 yards on 16 carries in his first career start at quarterback. Nordlie also finished the game 3-7 through the air for 64 yards and one score.

Jonathan Vandenbosch led the defensive line with 1.5 sacks and two total tackles. Noah Nordlie and Ben Washburn each finished with seven tackles to lead the team.

MLC improved to 2-0 on the season and 1-0 in UMAC play with the win. UMM fell to 0-2 overall and 0-2 in league play in defeat.

The Knights will return to action on Friday, when they travel to Northwestern-St. Paul for a game scheduled to start at 7 p.m.

Women’s soccer

NEW ULM — The Martin Luther College women’s soccer team lost to St. Scholastica 11-0 on Saturday.

The Saints jumped in front in the seventh minute and never looked back, scoring seven times in the first half and then adding four more goals in the second half.

MLC fell to 0-3 on the season and in UMAC play in defeat, while CSS improved to 3-0 overall and in league play with the win.

Men’s soccer

NEW ULM — The MLC men’s soccer team dropped its home opener by the score of 3-0 to College of St. Scholastica (CSS) on Saturday.

Josh Higgins finished with a career-high 18 saves in defeat.

MLC fell to 0-2 on the season and in UMAC play in defeat. CSS improved to 2-0 overall and in league play with the win.

Volleyball

ASHLAND, Wis. — The MLC volleyball team closed its season with a five-set defeat (25-11, 22-25, 25-22, 21-25, 15-11) at Northland College on Saturday.

The Lumberjills won the first and third sets, but the Knights came back each time to even the match, winning the second set 25-22 and the fourth set 25-21 to force a fifth and deciding game.

MLC started strong in the fifth set, building an 11-7 lead, but Northland came from behind to score the final eight points to win the match.

Kelsey Birschbach led MLC on the attack with 10 kills and added 23 digs, while Rhianna Hunter and Hannah Willems finished nine and eight kills, respectively.

Kate Aswege led all players with 25 digs, and became the 11th player in program history to record at least 1,000 career digs.

MLC finished the season 4-8 in defeat. Northland improved to 5-7 with the win.