BELLEVUE, Neb. - Offense was difficult to come by as the Bellevue University volleyball team dropped a 3-1 (14-25, 25-22, 25-16, 19-25) decision to the College of Saint Mary on Thursday night in MCAC action at the Gordon Lozier Athletic Center. Playing their final home match of the season Bellevue (20-17, 5-1 MCAC) saw their four-match win streak snapped while CSM improved to 18-8 (4-2 MCAC) with their fourth win in their last five outings.
The match got off to an emotional start with Bruin senior Sunny Bell (Omaha, Neb.) making the final appearance of her career. Bell took the first serve for BU, recording an ace before being substituted. The Flames, in a classy gesture, had agreed to not make a play on the serve which landed just inside the sideline in front of the CSM bench. Bell, a three-time All-MCAC selection, suffered an unfortunate knee injury and has decided to forgo any additional comeback efforts. The serve from Bell seemingly provided a spark to Bellevue who scored the first three points of the match en route to a 25-14 opening-set victory.
The second set started off just as BU would have like with the Bruins building an early 9-6 lead but CSM scored seven straight to take a 13-9 lead, a lead they did not relinquish. The set tightened up in the late points with Bellevue twice tying the score at 20-20 and 21-21 but it was not to be for the Bruins as the Flames claimed the 25-22 victory to even the match at one set apiece.
Bellevue looked just a half a step off throughout the third set as the Flames used a 5-0 run to turn a one-point deficit into an 8-4 lead and not look back. College of Saint Mary would stretch their lead to as many as nine on three separate occasions on their way to taking a two sets to one lead with the win by a final score of 25-16.
College of Saint Mary displayed tremendous defense, especially at the net from the third set on, and it was prevalent in a 25-19 fourth set victory to claim the match. The Flames used runs of 5-0 and 4-0 to thwart BU runs as Bellevue never got closer than three after pulling to within one at 9-8.
After hitting .556 in the opening set Bellevue hit a combined .080 the rest of the way and were out-hit by the Flames by a .275-.181 count for the match. CSM tallied six total blocks and out-dug Bellevue 52-46.
Sophomore LaJaida Even (Waverly, Iowa) and junior Symone Faulkner (Denver, Col.) were the top hitters for the Bruins, finishing with 11 and 10 kills, respectively. Junior Beth Walker (Dubuque, Iowa) recorded 35 of the Bruins 42 assists while also registering up six kills and eight digs. Freshman Taylor Holz (Omaha, Neb.) was the lone Bruin to reach double-figures in kills, finishing with 10.
Despite being eliminated from winning an outright MCAC regular season championship Bellevue can still claim a share of the title and hosting duties for the MCAC tournament with wins in their final two conference matches at Haskell Indian Nations University and Oklahoma Wesleyan University next weekend.
The Bruins will return to the court on Monday, Nov. 3 with a trip to Crete, Neb. for a 7:00 p.m. match-up against Doane College.
