BELLEVUE, Neb. -- The Bellevue University volleyball team topped Peru State College, 3-1, on Tuesday evening in non-conference action at the Gordon Lozier Athletic Center. Bellevue won the match by scores of 25-18, 23-25, 25-21, 26-24.
Both sides put on a hitting clinic in the first set with Bellevue attacking at an incredible .441 clip while Peru State hit at an impressive .270 rate. The Bruins' efforts proved victorious after committing just three attack errors in recording a 25-18 win over the Bobcats.
The offense cooled off in the second set as Peru State evened the match at one set apiece with a 25-23 victory. Bellevue limited Peru State to an .091 hitting effort while hitting .182 themselves but unforced errors proved to be BU's undoing.
The Bruins would emerge victorious in the pivotal third set with a 25-21 win behind a .179 hitting effort and eight Peru State attack errors. The Bobcats, whose eight attack errors equaled that of BU, manage just 11 kills while hitting .075 in the set.
Bellevue put the Bobcats away in the fourth set with a 26-24 win. They did so behind a .263 hitting effort and limiting Peru State to hitting .081 in the final set.
The match ended on a kill by sophomore Rachel Wald as BU scored the final two points of the match after calling a timeout with the score knotted at 24-24. The kill was the 20th of the night for Wald which is a new season-high and was just four off her career-high, set last year against College of the Ozarks.
The Bruins out-hit Peru State on the evening by a margin of .258-.129 and held a 57-53 advantage in digs. The win was the 11th in their last 13 matches for Bellevue, who is receiving votes in the latest Tachikara NAIA Coaches' Top 25 Poll which came out earlier today.
Beth Walker recorded her 17th double-double of the season in the win, finishing the match with 50 assists and 10 kills. The 50 assists were a season-high for Walker.
Joining Walker and Wald with double-figure kills was freshman Marylyn Mozena who ended the night with a career-best 15 kills. Freshman Shayla Scanlan and sophomore Mikaylah Gillespie added nine and eight kills, respectively.
On the defensive side of things sophomore Taylor Holz led the Bruins with 21 digs and senior Victoria Bowens added 10. Gillespie finished the night with five total blocks while Scanlan and junior Rachel Barr each added four.
The Bruins (16-10/1-0 NSAA) are off until Friday when they head to Aberdeen, S.D. for a 7 p.m. North Star match-up with Presentation.
