INDIANAPOLIS, In. – Bellarmine volleyball continued its weekend in the Circle City with another victory at the Hampton Inn Invitational, topping Northern Illinois 3-2 (25-16, 25-19, 18-25, 22-25, 15-9) in a frenzied five set match at The Jungle.

The Knights (4-4), taking on Northern Illinois (6-2) for the first time program history, snapped a five-match winning streak for the Huskies, joining fellow ASUN member Stetson as their only losses on the season so far.

Junior Natalie Bland was the driving force behind the Bellarmine offense, recording 15 kills on the night while adding two digs and a block. Fellow junior Erika Smith also tallied double-digit kills,
tallying 12 with three digs and a career-high seven blocks. Sophomore Payton Parsons registered a match-high 19 digs while tallying eight helpers and three aces. Senior Kylie Van Hoy paced stuffed the stat sheet, recording 37 assists, seven digs, six kills and five blocks.

As a team, Bellarmine racked up 11.0 total blocks and nine aces. NIU tallied seven blocks and seven aces in the match. The Knights also outpaced the Huskies in kills (53 to 50), assists (49 to 48) and digs (46 to 42).

Set 1
A tightly contested match to start, Bellarmine took a narrow 10-8 lead after back-to-back points to force a timeout from NIU. Out of the break, the Knights went on the attack, scoring three straight points and six of eight to jump out to a six-point lead, up 16-10 over the Huskies as they used their second timeout. The two teams traded points before a 4-0 BU run vaulted the Knights ahead 23-12, enabling them to cruise to a 25-16 first set win.

Set 2
Bellarmine carried its momentum over, starting off with a 3-0 run to begin the second set. The Knights maintained control of the stanza, holding a 10-7 lead as Northern Illinois called a timeout. Bellarmine used the break to its advantage, railing off a 5-1 run to force NIU to use its second timeout with a 15-8 lead. The Huskies came out of the break refocused and clawed back to within two, cutting the Bellarmine lead down to 16-14 as the Knights called its first timeout of the match. BU resumed its form out of the break and held its lead for the rest of the stanza, going on to a 25-19 win for a 2-0 lead.

Set 3
Northern Illinois came out of the intermission ready to fight and jumped out in front 8-3 as Bellarmine used an early timeout. The Huskies pushed the pace and extended their lead up to seven at 14-7 as BU used its second timeout. From there, NIU continued to control the game until a 3-0 run by the Knights to cut the deficit to 17-11 halted the Huskies momentum and called a timeout. Bellarmine fought its way back into the set after the break, getting back to within three, down 19-16, to force NIU to use its second timeout. The Knights scored the first point out of the break to cut the lead to two, but NIU regained composure and went on to take the set 25-18.

Set 4
The Huskies once again jumped in front, taking a 3-0 lead to start the fourth. Bellarmine rallied however, evening the score at 7-7. Another 3-0 run by NIU gave them the lead again though as BU called a timeout down 10-7. The Knights went on the attack immediately out of the break, scoring three straight points of their own to tie the game once again and force NIU to use a timeout. From there, both teams traded points as they tried to find an edge. After a 16-16 tie, the Huskies called their second timeout, leading to a 21-19 lead that forced Bellarmine's hand for its second timeout. The race to 25 was on out of the break. NIU held a narrow lead at 23-22 before scoring the final two points to win the set 25-22 and force a decisive fifth set.

Set 5
Bellarmine finally came out on top in the early going, scoring the first two points for a 2-0 lead. From there, the set went back-and-forth as the Knights clung to their slim margin, taking an 8-6 lead into the media timeout as the teams switched sides. Bellarmine scored immediately out of the break to go up 9-6, leading to an NIU timeout. The Huskies went on the attack, getting back within one as BU called a timeout with a 10-9 lead. This time the Knights went on the attack, scoring back-to-back points to push their lead to three at 12-9, forcing Northern Illinois to call its final timeout. Out of the break, it was once again all Bellarmine as the Knights ripped off three straight points, capping off a 5-0 run to claim the set 15-9 and secure the 3-2 match victory.

Up next, Bellarmine will conclude its weekend at the Hampton Inn Invitational with one final match on Saturday, September 13 as the Knights take on Gonzaga at 12 pm E.T. at The Jungle.

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