ST. LOUIS—For the Bellarmine Knights volleyball team, the 2017 season is starting eerily similar to 2016 season.
 
After opening with a school record eight straight wins, the 2016 Knights saw that streak snapped in their Great Lakes Valley Conference debut.  
 
This year's squad has followed the exact same script, tearing through its first eight games unbeaten and falling in its conference opener, which came Thursday night at the Mark Twain Building when the host Missouri-St. Louis Tritons outlasted the Knights 3-1 (25-22, 21-25, 25-23, 25-22).
 
As the set scores indicate, the match was highly competitive despite both offenses struggling. The Tritons hit just .119 as the Bellarmine defense came up with 103 digs on the nights. Conversely, the Knights were held to a hitting percentage of .096 as the Missouri-St. Louis defense posted 11 team blocks.
 
The Tritons snatched the first set with a timely 5-0 run.  The Knights had creeped out to a 20-18 advantage, but UMSL reeled off five straight points and held on for the 25-22 win.
 
Bellarmine bounced back in the second game, however.  After the Tritons seized a 10-7 lead, the Knights called time out, and the strategy paid off as Bellarmine came back onto the court and scored three straight to tie it.  Another 3-0 run gave them a 15-12, and they never looked back, going up by as many as six before settling for the 25-21 win.
 
In both the third and fourth sets, Bellarmine saw comeback attempts come up agonizingly short.  Facing a 21-15 deficit, the Knights clawed back and staved off two set points to climb within 24-23 before UMSL's Alex Miner got the kill to nail down the set win.
 
Bellarmine (8-1)faced another sizeable disadvantage in the fourth set, trailing 13-5.  Again the Knights fought back.  On five different occasions, they pulled within a point, but could never wrestle the lead away from the Tritons, who closed out the match with two straight points to win 25-22.
 
Margaret Horihan rang up 17 kills to lead the Knights' offensively.  Setter Allie Muha, who leads the league in assists, tallied 41 tonight while recording 21 digs--just one shy of her career best. The double-double gave her six on the young season.
 
Also turning in double-doubles for Bellarmine were Horihan, who added 14 digs to her 17 kills, and Hayden Dailey, who finished with 11 kills and 16 digs.
 
Bellarmine libero improved her GLVC-leading digs per set average to 6.85 by coming up with 33 in tonight's 4-set match.
 
The Tritons (8-1) were paced by Maddy Russell, who had 14 kills while hitting at a .238 pace.
 
Bellarmine returns home for another GLVC match on Saturday afternoon when they host Truman State in a 3 p.m. contest.
 
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