LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine volleyball team will take a break from conference play to compete in the 12th annual Midwest Region Volleyball Crossover Tournament on Friday and Saturday. The nation's largest collegiate volleyball tournament with 41 NCAA Division II programs participating will be held at the Academy Volleyball Club in Indianapolis.
The event will pit 16 Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) volleyball teams against 13 institutions representing the Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC), and 12 programs from the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). Each team is seeded within its conference with competition designed for similarly-seeded teams to play each other.
Bellarmine (14-5/5-2 GLVC) is the No. 4 seed from the GLVC, and they will play the Nos. 3 and 4 seeds from the G-MAC (Cedarville and Tiffin) and the GLIAC's No. 4 seed (Ashland). The Knights already own victories over Cedarville and Tiffin this season as both competed in tournaments at Knights Hall earlier this season.
The Crossover will feature three "waves" of competition each day, and Bellarmine opens play in Friday's second wave at 2:30 PM against Cedarville, who the Knights bested in four sets back on Sept. 21. The Yellow Jackets are currently 10-6 overall and 5-1 in G-MAC play with the lone league loss coming in their last outing to the 17th-ranked Hillsdale Chargers.
Bellarmine will then play in the first and third waves on Saturday, meeting Ashland at 10 a.m. and Tiffin at 4 p.m.
The Eagles of Ashland come into the Crossover Tourney 15-4 on the season with a 7-2 GLIAC record. Bellarmine and Ashland have a few common opponents this season with both squads owning victories over Illinois Springfield and losses to both Saginaw Valley State and Clarion.
In their earlier meeting this year, the Knights swept Tiffin in a Sept. 14 match at Bellarmine. Overall, the Dragons are 11-8, 5-1 G-MAC, and like Cedarville, the one conference loss is to Hillsdale.
Bellarmine is coming into the Crossover fresh off an upset win over then-No. 6 Lewis University in which freshman
Jayme Scott led the way with 15 kills and 21 digs. On the season, Scott has been Bellarmine's most consistent offensive weapon and ranks sixth in the GLVC in kills per set with an average of 3.55. Junior setter
Kristen O'Toole also has emerged as one of the league leaders in assists at 10.14 per set. She also ranks No. 8 in the GLVC in service aces per set.
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