NOTRE DAME, Ind. - The Saint Mary's volleyball team dropped a conference match to No. 7 ranked Hope by a 3-0 (25-13, 25-15, 25-7) score on Friday night.
The Flying Dutch gained control of the first set with a 8-1 run to build a 10-2 lead. After a timeout later in the set, the Belles came out of the break with a double block by
Allison Thornton and
Hannah Stacy before an attack error by Hope gave Saint Mary's back-to-back points.
Hannah Stacy added a kill, and
Molly Pooler put away a kill to make it a 23-13 score. A service error by the Belles followed by a Hope kill, however, lifted the Flying Dutch to the 25-13 set win.
The second set was tightly contested through the first several points as the Belles came up with responses to the Flying Dutch early.
Allison Thornton had a kill, and
Molly Pooler and
Hannah Stacy teamed up for a block to keep Saint Mary's within striking distance at 8-5. Hope swayed the momentum in their favor a short while later as a 6-0 scoring spurt put the Flying Dutch ahead 18-7. The Belles continued to battle down the stretch. Thornton, Stacy, and
Shay Theile each put down a kill to help spur a 4-1 scoring surge. Hope responded with three of the next four points to go up 24-14 before closing out the set with a kill for a 25-15 win.
The Flying Dutch opened the third set with a 7-2 lead, but three consecutive points for the Belles put Saint Mary's right back into the mix at 7-5. Hope, however, strung together the next 17 points in-a-row for a 24-5 advantage before closing out the match with the 25-7 win in the set.
The Belles (4-8, 0-2 MIAA) travel to Olivet on Wednesday, September 29 for a 7:00 p.m. conference match against the Comets.
