LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine volleyball team is back home in Knights Hall for a pair of ASUN Conference matches this week, welcoming Jacksonville and North Florida on Friday and Saturday.  The Knights host the Dolphins at 6 p.m. on Friday with a short turnaround before taking on the Ospreys Saturday morning at 11 a.m.
 
Bellarmine is coming off a pair of exciting comeback victories over in-state rival Eastern Kentucky last week that improved the Knights to 10-12 overall and 4-6 in league play.  Junior outside hitter Bailey Venard paced the Bellarmine offense last week, following up a career-high 24 kills in Friday's match with 20 on Sunday. 
 
Meanwhile senior Jayme Scott continues to put up big numbers and enters the weekend leading the ASUN in kills per set (4.27) and total kills (320). On defense, junior libero Anna Lococo and sophomore middle blocker Jayda Harris both posted career highs against EKU in Friday's match.  Lococo racked up 33 digs while Harris totaled eight blocks against the Colonels.
 
Jacksonville (8-14, 2-8 ASUN) enters the week on a six-match losing skid.  Despite the Dolphins recent misfortunes, they feature several of the ASUN's top performers.  Middle blocker Haley Hart is third in the league with a .352 hitting percentage and is the team's kills leader with an average of 3.28 per set.  Setter Rebecca Rocassin ranks second in the ASUN in service aces, averaging .44 per set.
 
Defensively, Jacksonville boasts the ASUN leader in digs, where Kariana Ayala-Drew averages 4.96 per set.  The Dolphins also lead the league in blocks (98) and in blocks per set (2.51) with Lyric Love and Hart ranking 3-4 in the league with averages of 1.14 and 1.12 blocks per set.
 
While Jacksonville has been struggling to find the win column of late, North Florida (8-13, 6-4 ASUN) has been on something of a roll and knocked off ASUN co-leader Kennesaw State and fourth-place Jacksonville State in five-set thrillers last week.  In fact, the Ospreys have won four of their last five with the lone loss coming in five sets to league co-leader Liberty.
 
North Florida also can claim some of the ASUN's leading players.  Mahalia White is one the top hitters, ranking just behind Scott in kills, and she is the only other player in the ASUN averaging better than four kills per set with an average of 4.12. On defense, UNF's Rocio Moro is the ASUN leader in total digs (387) and ranks second in digs per set at 4.78.
 
The North Florida match was moved to 11 a.m. (from the originally announced 1 p.m. start time) to accommodate the Ospreys' travel schedule.
 
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