LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine volleyball team raced out to a quick 1-0 lead with a commanding 25-15 set one victory, but the visiting Truman State Bulldogs regrouped and won three sets in a row to get the victory in a Great Lakes Valley Conference contest in Knights Hall on Saturday afternoon
Truman State took the second set 25-18, and the match swung in the Bulldogs favor after they fought off three Bellarmine set points in the third set and pulled out a 31-29 win.
The Knights went right back to work in the fourth set and built a 16-11 lead to give Bellarmine fans hopes of extending the match to a fifth set. However, the momentum swung in TSU's favor as the Bulldogs ripped off a 7-0 run to take an 18-16 lead.
Bellarmine finally stopped the Truman State streak and inched back ahead 19-18, but the Bulldogs responded with three consecutive points. This time the Knights didn't have an answer as Truman pulled out the 25-22 win.
Final statistics reflect a close match, but Truman managed to slightly get the better of Bellarmine in nearly all phases. The Bulldogs totaled four more kills (55-51)000, four more digs (72-68), two more blocks (11-9) and outhit the Knights .177 to .166.
Truman State had three players register double digit kills with Ellie Kaat leading the way with 16. Senior
Katie Adams paced the Knights with 11 kills as six Bellarmine players recorded seven or more (
Izzie Salameh, 9;
Abbie Oetting and
Bailey Roszman, 8; and
Jacquie Hornung and
Julia Dailey, 7).
Bellarmine Coach
Jenni Grzebin employed two setters in the match with
Kristen O'Toole dishing out 23 assists and
Sam Rickert handing out 17.
On defense,
Jordyn Kuchenbrod posted a match-high 24 digs while Roszman posted three solo blocks and a block assist with Salameh adding five assisted blocks.
The Knights slip to 8-7, 2-5 GLVC while Truman improves to 11-3, 4-2 GLVC.
Bellarmine returns to action on Friday at William Jewell.
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