EAST PEORIA, Ill.—The 2018 Bellarmine Volleyball season came to an end today as the Knights fell 3-1 to the Illinois Springfield Prairie Stars in the quarterfinals of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championship Tournament at the EastSide Centre.
 
The third-seeded Prairie Stars opened on fire and used a scintillating .583 hitting percentage to blow past the Knights 25-13 in the opening set.  However, the Knights regrouped and squared the match with a 25-19 set two victory.
 
The third set was relatively even, but the Prairie Stars closed the frame with a 4-1 run to win 25-21.  Bellarmine seemed to simply run of out steam in the fourth set as Illinois Springfield rolled to another 25-13 win to close out the match.
 
The Prairie Stars swung at an impressive .364 clip in today's match as Taylor Bauer led the way with 21 kills while hitting .487.   Bellarmine hit .214 in the contest with Abbie Oetting pacing the Knights' attack with 13 kills and a .571 hitting percentage.
 
Bellarmine finishes 20-10 on the season while UIS improves to 25-6 and advances to the GLVC semifinals, which will be played tomorrow.
 
The loss brings a close to the Bellarmine careers of seniors Katie Adams, Abby Schlaug, Toni DalleCarbonare and Jordyn Kuchenbrod, who will leave her name etched in the Bellarmine and the NCAA record book.
 
Kuchenbrod ends her career with 2,921 digs, which is a school record and ties for fifth on the NCAA Division II all-time list.  Her career digs per set average of 6.24 also is school record and ranks sixth all-time at the NCAA Division II level. The Louisville senior also will leave as one the Knights' best servers in school history, ranking No. 8 on the Bellarmine career list for service aces with 129.
 
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