KENOSHA, Wisc.—The 2017 season has been magical for the Bellarmine Knights, so it should come as little wonder that in Friday's night victory over Wisconsin-Parkside the Knights pulled off an escape trick that would have made famed magician Harry Houdini envious.
After building a two sets to one lead over the Rangers (25-22, 23-25, 25-20), Bellarmine suddenly went stone cold. Wisconsin-Parkside rolled over the Knights 25-13 in the fourth set to force a decisive fifth set.
The Rangers continued their dominance by scoring the first six points in the final set, which is played to 15 points.
Somehow, the Knights summoned the courage and fortitude to fight back.
An attack error by the Rangers gave Bellarmine its first point of the fifth set, then the teams traded points to make it 7-2.
Bellarmine libero
Jordyn Kuchenbrod took over the serve, and the Knights reeled off five points in a row—including two aces—to tie the score. From there, it was game on.
Finally, the Knights took a two-point advantage at 12-10, but the Rangers climbed back to knot the score at 13. Bellarmine freshman
Izzie Salameh and senior
Hayden Dailey then blocked Leah Fenske's attack to set up match point. The Rangers' Lexi Turek then hammered an attack that sailed wide right to give Bellarmine its 23rd win of the season.
A look at the final statistics suggests that Parkside may have won more battles, but somehow the Knights won the war.
The Rangers outhit the Knights .210 to .111 and recorded 64 kills to just 51 for BU. The hosts also outblocked Bellarmine 17-4 and outdug their guests 93-86.
The Knights turned in a better service performance than Parkside with nine aces to three, and BU committed three fewer service errors (7-10).
Individually, UWP's Turek led all hitters with 19 kills while swinging at a .457 clip while her teammate Rachel Hedman added 18 kills with a .472 attack percentage.
Margaret Horihan paced the Knights with 14 kills and tied Kuchenbrod for team-high honors with 25 digs.
Allie Muha (39 assists/10 digs) and Dailey (10 kills/10 digs) also turned in double-doubles for the Knights.
The win closed out Bellarmine's regular season with the Knights finishing 23-7 overall with a 13-5 mark in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Rangers, who still have one more match in their season, slipped to 12-17, 7-10 GLVC.
Bellarmine's next action will come in the GLVC Championship Tournament. Only eight teams advance to the postseason tourney, which will be held Nov. 17-19 at the Eastside Centre in East Peoria, Illinois.
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