LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine University volleyball team dropped a pair of home matches on Saturday, falling in straight sets to Great Lakes Valley Conference foe Quincy University before coming up short in a five-set loss to Kentucky Wesleyan.

Despite being on the wrong end of a 3-0 score against Quincy, the Knights were actually just a few points from winning as the set scores were extremely tight at 25-23, 26-24, 26-24.  The statistics reflect the closeness of the match with both teams recording 40 kills.  On defense, Bellarmine came up with seven more digs than the Hawks (67-60), but the visitors made up the difference with six more blocks (9-3).

Individual leaders in the match were Bellarmine's Margaret Horihan with 10 kills with teammates Aurryella Mason and Ashley Jefferson each registering nine.  On the other side of the net, Quincy (7-7, 2-2 GLVC) was led by Gianna Lincoln and Bekah Raebel with eight kills apiece. 

Defensively, Bellarmine libero Jordyn Kuchenbrod had 23 digs while the Hawks' defense was paced by Jessica Licurgo, who assisted on seven of her team's nine blocks.

A bright spot for the Knights was the play of freshman Abby Schlaug, who recorded 15 digs and two service aces.

In the evening game, the Knights were forced to play without setter Allie Muha, who was nursing an injury.  That meant the setting duties fell on Mason, who normally plays outside hitter.  The freshman responded with 42 assists, but the Knights fell victim to timely Panther scoring in the five set affair. The Knights actually outscored KWC 101-94 in the match, but the Panthers scored when it counted in pulling out the 25-22, 16-25, 25-17, 25-13, 15-12 victory.

Offensively, Bellarmine's Megan Kimbley led all hitters with 14 kills while KWC's Nikki Jenkins had 12 for the Panthers.  

Two Knights recorded double-doubles with Mason adding 13 digs to her 42 assists, and Mason coming up with 17 digs to go along with her 11 kills. 

In dropping their fifth straight match, the Knights fall to 6-8 on the season with a 1-3 GLVC record.  The Panthers finally break into the winning column with their five-set victory and move to 1-10 on the season.

Bellarmine will return to GLVC play next weekend with matches at Illinois Springfield on Friday and McKendree on Saturday.
 
QUINCY BOX SCORE (HTM)

KWC BOX SCORE (HTM)