LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine volleyball team punched its ticket to the Great Lakes Valley Conference postseason tournament on Saturday night with sweep of Drury in Knights Hall.
 
The Knights are now solidly in sixth place in the conference standings at 9-5 with just one match remaining, and eight teams in the GLVC move on to postseason play.
 
The Panthers came into tonight's match trailing only Rockhurst in the league standings at 11-2, but  were not ranked in the NCAA regional rankings since their out-of-conference record is just 6-11.  The Knights were 10th in the latest regional rankings, so tonight's win could have NCAA tourney implications.
 
The Knights set the tone early in tonight's match, thumping Drury 25-15 in the opening game, hitting .361 with Jayme Scott and Abbie Oetting combining for 10 kills on just 17 swings.
 
Bellarmine kept the momentum going in set number two by pulling out an extremely tight game by scoring the final two points to take a 25-23 victory.  The two-point margin tied the largest lead by either team in the set.
 
The Knights completed the sweep by establishing an early lead then weathering a 5-0 Drury run before scoring seven of the set's last eight points to win 25-20.  
 
Scott finished the match as the leading hitter with 19 kills and a .341 hitting percentage. Bellarmine sophomore Julia Dailey was the only other player to reach double digit kills with 10.  On the Drury side, Julia McCown and Taylor Forth shared team-high honors with eight kills each.
 
Bellarmine setter Kristen O'Toole continued her solid play, doling out 41 assists and registering a double-double with 12 digs. Defensively, Karleigh Wilson matched her uniform number with 19 digs, and Emily Ernst equaled O'Toole's dig total with 12. Both teams finished with seven blocks as Oetting and Scott each had four block assists to the lead the Knights.  Forth led the way for Drury with a solo block and two assisted blocks.
 
The Knights (19-10) are now just one win shy of posting their third straight 20-win season, which would be a program first. Bellarmine has a chance to accomplish that feat on Saturday when the Knights host Southwest Baptist at 3 p.m.  Before the match, Bellarmine will honor its lone senior this year—Sarah Garcia, a student-manager from Chicago, Illinois.
 
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