Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - - Belmont (14-7, 5-1) defeated North Florida, 3-1, in Atlantic Sun play on the road Friday night. The Bruins gave up a lead and fell in set one, but came from behind to win set two before controlling the match in sets three and four. The final scores for the match were 27-25, 25-21, 25-16, 25-21.
"I'm not going to say that I hoped that we would lose game one, but I knew there was a very real possibility that we would tonight," Head Coach Deane Webb said of his team's slow start. "We've really been working all week on being more aggressive. Being more aggressive in serving, more aggressive in attacking. There's a fine line between being aggressive and being reckless and in the first game, we were more on the reckless side of that line. I was okay with that because that's been our focus this entire week, to be more aggressive. I told the kids before the game, 'if you make aggressive errors, no problem,' and we're not going to be upset about it. That's part of learning. What really impressed me tonight is that our team changed from reckless to aggressive as the match went on. That's an important skill in any athletic event, to be able to change your mindset throughout the match. I was really pleased with that. I think it was a learning match for us, a good opportunity for us to get better emotionally. I thought Allison (McCoy) had a great match. It was good to see her involved at the level she was. I was just really pleased with how aggressive we were in several phases of the game."
The Bruins were led by senior Maggie Johnson who finished with 18 kills. Belmont struggled in the first two sets before bouncing back on the attack in sets two and four. Helping the Bruins regain control of the match was sophomore Allison McCoy, who turned in a solid all-around performance with nine kills, no hitting errors, three service aces and five block assists. McCoy also hit .462 for the match to lead Belmont.
"We knew from watching North Florida on tape that they quite often single block the middle and we feel that Allison is a player who is athletic enough that if you give her that much court, she'll take advantage of it and she did tonight," Webb said. "She and Hannah haven't been connecting as well these past couple of weeks as we would like and they've come in and put in some extra work and it paid off tonight. Allison hitting over .400 with no hitting errors, she really had a nice match and added five blocks."
Sophomore setter Hannah Miranda finished the match with 37 assists, while sophomore libero Jamie Lundstrom finished with a team-high 18 digs. After allowing the Ospreys to hit .250 in the first set, Belmont, the conference leader in opponent hitting percentage, responded defensively, holding North Florida to .138 for the match.
"I think a good part of that was our serve," Webb said of the team's defense. "After game one, when we didn't miss quite as many (serves), we were able to get them out of system a good part of the night. They were consistently running their offense 10 feet of the net. It gets easier to defend when that happens. We had a couple of blocking adjustments, but nothing enormous, but enough to give them a little different look and our back row players put them in different positions. I would attribute most of that to the serve."
In a match that saw both teams record 19 service errors, receiving the serves that were in play became a critical advantage and an edge Webb felt his team held over North Florida following the first set.
"Once we got past the first game, we passed really well," Webb said. "Jen Myer, in particular, really passed the ball well all night. She didn't really have a great night striking or serving, but made up for it digs and serve receive at a level that was able to get our middle's going and was a great teammate tonight." Myer finished the match with five kills and 15 digs to go along with two service aces and two block assists.
Belmont will continue its Florida road swing tomorrow when the Bruins travel to Jacksonville for a 4 p.m. match against the Dolphins. The Bruins are now 8-1 all-time against North Florida. Webb believes his team will need an even stronger performance to pick up conference win number six against Jacksonville on Saturday.
"They're definitely a bigger team as far as their pin attackers are definitely bigger," Webb said. "The kids tonight for North Florida were smaller, but just could just go up and rip the ball. Tomorrow they're probably a little bigger, maybe not as fast as (North Florida's Paige) Pridgeon. Pridgeon is one of the most dynamic players in the conference and one of my favorite players to watch. I don't always enjoy being on the other side of it, but I always love watching that kid play. We know tomorrow that they're a very good blocking team, they're always a very good blocking team. They probably run their middle a little better this year than some years and are probably a little more athletic than some other years. We know we're going to need to play really well and we'll need to play better than we did tonight to get a win."
