NOTRE DAME, Ind. - Saint Mary's College Volleyball defeated Beloit College, 3-0, on Friday to close out the homestand. The Belles improve to 8-5 after the win while the Buccaneers fall to 4-5.
The two teams traded points back and forth before Beloit got out to a sneaky two point lead. Saint Mary's would force six errors en route to a 9-4 run to take a three point lead heading into the first media timeout. The Belles came out of the break on a 5-2 run to extend their lead even further. While the Buccaneers tried to bounce back into it, the Belles used a 4-0 run to close out the set, winning 25-18. Senior
Caroline Carens (Naperville, IL) led the team with five kills in the set while freshman
Bridget O'Connell (Tinley Park, IL) added four on four attempts.
Saint Mary's dominated the second set early, getting out to a quick 9-1 lead including a strong 8-0 run aided by fantastic serving from freshman
Maddy VanBlack (Tecumseh, MI). Beloit fought back with a 7-2 run of their own to cut the deficit to three. The Belles bounced right back on their feet with another 8-0 to extend their lead, this time aided by the serving of sophomore
Shannon Rudge (Granger, IN). The two teams traded points back and forth to close out the set, seeing the Belles take the set win on a Buccaneer service error to take a 2-0 lead with a 25-15 win. Carens and O'Connell doubled their totals with five and four more kills each while O'Connell continued to hit 1.000 on the night, Carens also hitting an impressive .615. Junior
Giuliana Graczyk (Chicago, IL) jumped into double figure assists with 11.
The Belles got out to another strong start in the third set, leading 10-2 early. The Buccaneers tried to get back into the match but couldn't cut the Belles lead to anything less than five points, seeing it grow to as many as nine. Saint Mary's closed out the set and the match with a strong kill from Carens to win the third set, 25-16, and take the 3-0 sweep over Beloit.
Carens finished with a match high 14 kills while O'Connell finished with 11. The two both incredibly hit above .600 on the match, O'Connell finishing with a .692 and Carens with a .632. Graczyk led the team with 18 assists while Rudge put up an impressive performance serving, tallying four aces, tying a career high.
Defensively, senior
Abby Reese (Elkhart, IN) led the team with 11 digs while Graczyk added 10. Reese also led the team with four block assists on the night. Carens and O'Connell both tallied three block assists each while Carens added two solo blocks.
As a team, the Belles hit an impressive .322 on the match while holding the Buccaneers to just a .035 and not allowing them to hit above a .077 in any set. They forced 18 attacking errors and four service errors while allowing just 21 total kills.
UP NEXT FOR THE BELLES
Saint Mary's hits the road on Saturday as they travel to compete in a tri-match at Manchester University. The Belles will play Manchester at 1pm before taking on the University of Puerto Rico–Rio Piedras at 3pm. They return home on Tuesday to host Elmhurst University at 7pm for their annual Morgan's Message Game.
