BELLEVUE, Neb. -- Sophomore Rachel Wald hit .680 with 17 kills and no attack errors to lead the Bellevue University volleyball team to a 3-0 victory over William Woods University on Friday afternoon at the Lied Activity Center as part of the Bruin Labor Day Classic.
For Wald her hitting percentage was a new career-high for matches in which she totaled at least 10 attempts. Her previous top mark came against Lewis-Clark State where she hit .444. The Bruins – as a team – attacked at a .281 clip for the match, their highest mark since hitting .283 in the season-opener against Lewis-Clark State.
William Woods hit .095 as a team, led by Emily Becker's 13 kills and .455 hitting performance. Britt Engelbrecht finished with 28 assists and Shelby Hinshaw led the team with 11 digs.
Bellevue won each of the first two sets easily, by identical 25-18 scores, before being tested by the Owls in the third set. BU trailed by five as late as 22-17 before rallying behind the serving of sophomore Mikaylah Gillespie to score four straight points to pull within one at 22-21. A kill by senior Victoria Bowens tied the match at 24-24 to force extra serves. Wald scored the final two points of the match with a kill and a service ace to lift BU to a 30-28 win.
In addition to Wald, freshman Lauren Colpitts and senior Beth Walker had strong offensive matches. Colpitts totaled 12 kills and hit .320 for the match while Walker directed the attack with 31 assists, four kills, and a .250 hitting percentage.
Defensively the Bruins were led by sophomore Taylor Holz and her 14 digs while Wald added six. Walker and freshman Erin Warren each finished the match with five digs.
Head Coach Trish Siedlik:
"We played a complete match today and that was something that we needed for our confidence. Our outsides have struggled for the past few matches but they stepped up when it was needed."
Bellevue (3-5) plays their second match of the day at 7 pm against No. 15 Madonna.
