LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Bellarmine volleyball closed out its opening weekend in style, winning both matches on day two of the Bellarmine Classic in Knights Hall.
The Knights opened with a thrilling 3-2 (27-25, 26-24, 22-25, 20-25, 17-15) win over undefeated Purdue Fort Wayne. Later in the day, Bellarmine picked up the only sweep in the six-match event, defeating Evansville in straight sets 25-15, 25-15, 15-17.
Senior
Natalie Bland led the way for the Knights against PFW, turning in a season-high 18 kills while hitting at an efficient .273 (18-6-44) clip, adding 11 digs to notch her first double-double of the year with two blocks and two aces. Freshman
Mady Yaden registered 13 kills in the match while redshirt sophomore
Mya White recorded 12 with three digs and three blocks. Freshman
Maddie Carnes collected career-highs in both assists and digs, collecting 47 and 17 respectively.
As a team, the Knights collected 14.0 blocks. Senior
Erika Smith recorded seven blocks while freshman
Mary Herman turned in six with both registering a pair of solo rejections. Smith tied her career high while Herman set a new career best. The team's 14.0 blocks is the most in single match for Bellarmine since September 17, 2022 at Southern Illinois (14.0).
Purdue Fort Wayne's Riley Rosneck led the match with a whopping 33 kills with a .262 (33-11-84) hitting percentage. Becky Barrett notched a match-high 25 digs for the Mastodons.
The first match of the day was tightly contested from start to finish. Bellarmine took the lead half-way through the first and battled to the end for a 27-25 win. In the second, Purdue Fort Wayne controlled the pace late into the scoring. Down four at 20-16, Bellarmine refocused and tied things at 23-23 before going on to a 26-24 victory for a 2-0 lead. From there, the Mastodons turned things around. The Knights held a late lead in the third, but PFW was hungry for a fourth set and overcame the deficit before going on to win 25-22. In the fourth, Purdue Fort Wayne once again came from behind with a late rally, taking the set 25-20 to force a decisive fifth set. The final set went point for point right out of the gate. PFW jumped ahead 13-10 and it looked all but over for the Knights. Bellarmine did not lay down however, evening the set at 13-13 before making a final push to take the set 17-15 for a 3-2 match win.
Against Evansville, Bland and Yaden tied for the match high in kills with 14 apiece. Yaden set a new career-high, topping her 13 from the first match, while hitting a whopping .583 (14-0-24) in the contest. Bland was also highly effective in her attack, hitting at a .355 (14-3-31) clip while adding seven digs and a block. Carnes continued her impressive start to her career by dishing out 35 assists without an error while contributing six digs, three kills and a block.
For the Purple Aces, Lyla Fisher collected a team best 11 kills and hit .333 (11-3-24). Carsyn Kelly dished out 23 assists in the match and Brooke Herdes collected nine digs.
Bellarmine jumped out to an early lead in the first set and never looked back. Evansville played tough for a while, getting as close as one point down, but the Knights were firing on all cylinders and rode to a 25-15 first set win. The second set was much of the same for BU as both the offense and defense were clicking, leading to another 25-15 win and a 2-0 lead. Evansville came out on the attack in the third and kept things level through the early scoring. Eventually, however, Bellarmine got back in a groove and took over the match, sweeping the Purple Aces with a 25-17 victory for their second match win of the day.
Up next, Bellarmine will hit the road for the first time in 2026, heading to the Blue Ridge Volleyball Classic in Asheville, NC to take on UNC Asheville, Western Carolina and Jacksonville State.
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