ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The Bellarmine University volleyball team capped off its first road weekend of the season with a 3-2 (25-17, 25-12, 20-25, 16-25, 15-8) win over Jacksonville State on Saturday afternoon at the Blue Ridge Classic in Harrah's Cherokee Center.
Bellarmine (3-3) bounced back from back-to-back losses on Friday, securing the five-set win over Jacksonville State (1-4). BU head coach
Rick Nold started his collegiate coaching career as JSU's head coach for nine seasons. Today's win marks his first over the Gamecocks in his time at Bellarmine and moves him to 4-3 all-time against his former program.
Freshman
Mady Yaden led the Knights for the second straight game, turning in a team-high 13 kills with two blocks. Senior
Natalie Bland recorded her second consecutive double-double, and team leading third of the year, with 12 kills and 13 digs while also collecting two blocks. Redshirt junior
Mya White rounded out the team's top finishers with 11 kills. Freshman
Maddie Carnes paced the offense as she stuffed the stat sheet with 41 assists in addition to nine kills, six digs, five aces and two blocks.
As a team, Bellarmine hit .305 (57-18-124) on the match and bested Jacksonville State in kills (57-52), assists (53-48), aces (10-6) and digs (48-43).
The opening set was tightly contested in the beginning. Bellarmine was able to open a small lead midway through the game and coasted to the finish to take a 1-0 lead. In the second stanza, the Knights jumped ahead early and never looked back. Up as many as 13 points late in the set, BU played a dominant second set to move ahead 2-0. Jacksonville wouldn't go down without a fight however as the Gamecocks controlled the scoring for most of the third set, staving off a late Bellarmine run to stay in the match and force a fourth set. In the fourth, Jax State carried its momentum from the win forward and rallied for a quick set four win to even the match at 2-2 and send things to a fifth set. Bellarmine refocused entering the fifth and jumped ahead early. Jacksonville State fought back but never got closer than within two points as the Knights finished off the win and secured the match 3-2.
Up next, Bellarmine will play its first of back-to-back matches against Butler, traveling to Indianapolis, IN on Thursday, September 10.
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