Knights fall to Seattle and Gardner-Webb in 2022 home debut

next match:

IUPUI

9/10/2022 | 2 PM

Sep 10 (Sat) / 2 PM

IUPUI

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—The Bellarmine volleyball team made its home debut on Friday in the Hawthorn Suites Louisville East Bellarmine Invitational at Knights Hall, where the host team fell in both of its matches.

The Knights dropped a 3-0 decision to Seattle in the afternoon and lost a heartbreaker in five sets to Gardner-Webb despite a career-best performance by senior Jayme Scott, who tallied 28 kills against the Runnin’ Bulldogs.

“Those were not the results we wanted,” said Bellarmine Coach Rick Nold, “but I’m happy with the way we fought tonight. I’m excited to keep seeing progress with this group.”

The Bellarmine-Seattle match was a tight contest despite the Redhawks pulling off the sweep. The visitors narrowly claimed victories in all three sets: 25-21, 25-21, 25-22. In the end, the relentless nature of the Seattle defense and a better day at the service line swung the match in the visitors’ favor.

The Knights had plenty of good swings, but the Redhawk defense did a good job of keeping the ball from hitting the floor as they held Bellarmine to a .155 hitting percentage. Seattle also had a positive service ace to error ratio (six aces and five errors), while the Knights committed 10 errors while recording five aces.

In the nightcap, the Knights looked to have the match well in hand, but Gardner-Webb stayed true to their Bulldog nickname in showing the tenacity to keep on fighting.

After Bellarmine took a 2-1 lead in the match (25-17, 21-25, 25-17), the Runnin’ Bulldogs took control in the fourth set and rolled a 25-15 win. Then, in the decisive fifth set, the Knights jumped out to a solid 7-5 start. However, after it appeared the Knights had extended their lead to 8-5, a net violation gave the point to Gardner-Webb as the Bulldogs pulled within a point at 7-6. The play turned out to be a huge momentum shift, as the visitors put together a 7-0 run and went on to win 15-9.

Despite the loss, Scott turned in a monster effort, collecting 14 digs to go along with her 28 kills, which tied for the sixth-most in a match by a Bellarmine player and the most in the D1 era. The double-double was her second on the day and third of the season as she went for 11 kills and 13 digs against Seattle in the opening match.

Scott was one of two Knights to record double-doubles in the Gardner-Webb match with setter Emily Arnold collecting 45 assists and 11 digs.

The Knights Hall crowd made for a nice environment, and Nold was impressed in his first appearance in the arena as the Bellarmine coach. “Our crowd was awesome,” he said. “I loved all the BU athletes out there supporting us.”

The home fans will have another chance to catch Bellarmine in action on Saturday when they close out the invitational with a 2 pm match against IUPUI. The Jaguars split their opening day matches, falling in straight sets to Seattle, but getting past Gardner-Webb in four.

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