ST. LOUIS—The Bellarmine University volleyball team opened its 2018 Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule with a four-set loss to Missouri-St. Louis on Friday evening at the Mark Twain Building.

After falling behind early in the first game, the Knights couldn't make up ground and dropped a 25-17 decision.  Bellarmine answered with a dominating performance in the second set, hitting .419 and cruising to a 25-12 win.

Unfortunately for the visitors, that would be the high point in the match as the host Tritons came back to claim the third set 25-20 then erased a 23-20 deficit and fended off a Bellarmine set point to clinch the match with a 27-25 win in set number four.

Junior outside hitter Jacquie Hornung led the Bellarmine offense with 14 kills with freshman Bailey Roszman adding 12 for the Knights.

However, the Bellarmine front line couldn't keep pace with their counterparts as four UMSL players reached double digit kills. Selena Nolte led that Triton quartet with 22 kills while hitting .327. Maddy Russell also had an impressive stat line for UMSL with 16 kills and a .429 hitting percentage.

Missouri-St. Louis (5-4, 1-0 GLVC) finished the night with 16 more kills than Bellarmine (67-51) while out-digging their guests 73-60.  Megan Woll led the UMSL defense, which posted only one team block, with a match-high 29 digs.

Bellarmine (6-3, 0-1 GLVC) has less than 24 hours to rest before trying to even its GLVC mark at Maryville on Saturday. The Knights and the Saints, who lost in straight sets to Southern Indiana tonight, square off at 4 p.m.

For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow us on Twitter (@BUKnights), Instagram (BUKnights), Facebook (BUKnights) and the BUKnights mobile app available for iPhone and Android.

HTM BOX SCORE