Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn. - - Belmont (21-9, 11-2 A-Sun) fell to rival Lipscomb, 0-3, in the Atlantic Sun conference tournament finals on Saturday afternoon in Allen Arena. The Bruins seemed out of sync throughout the entire match as they fell in straight, lopsided sets to Lipscomb, 16-25, 16-25 and 14-25. Lipscomb claimed its third straight championship. Belmont finished the season with 21 wins, the most since 2008.
The result was the furthest from what the Bruins hoped for, as the team had one of its poorest performances of the season in the final match. The loss, only the ninth on the season, will be hard to stomach, but should not ultimately diminish the 21 wins amassed by Belmont this season, or tarnish the strong individual performances that powered the Bruins throughout the season.
"I think you sum up today in four words: great year, bad day," Head Coach Deane Webb said. "It really is a credit to Lipscomb. They played great, they served really tough today and we were out of system a good portion today. When that happens, we couldn't get our middles going and then had a hard time scoring other places. With the exception of Jen, we really had a hard time scoring. That's a credit to what they did from the service line against us."
The match was the final for Belmont senior Maggie Johnson, who will finish as one of the all-time greats at Belmont and in the Atlantic Sun. She'll finish in the top five in kills and attacks at Belmont and in the A-Sun. Johnson was named to the All-Tournament team alongside sophomores Jen Myer and Allison McCoy.
"Maggie, I'm sure, would give back every individual award if we would have won or we could win today," Webb said. "That is the nature of it, one team will win a championship and one team will have their season end and be very upset. I'm certainly proud of the contributions, not just of those who received awards for the all-tournament, but of the entire team for the success that we had all year. It truly has been a team effort. This is a group that probably played as close to 100 percent potential for a prolonged period of time as any team we've had at Belmont. We've had number of teams that were better, a number teams that were more talented, but I'm not sure we've had a team with as good of team chemistry, that achieved at such a high percentage as often as this team did."
While perspective may be a ways off for the young Bruin team, the 2011 season was a highly successful one and a good indication of things to come for the program. The loss is certainly disappointing and a bitter pill to swallow on the heels of such a successful regular season, but in time, Belmont will hopefully grade the campaign based on the sum of the accomplishments, rather than the final defeat.
"I think after a loss like today, there's nothing you can say that's going to make anyone feel better," Webb said. "We talked about the great year that it was and the hard work they put in, but really, it's more of just understanding some of the lessons that we've learned this year, the excitement of knowing the success we had this year with one senior and one junior and knowing that the majority of our team returns and what that can mean for our future. If we learn the lessons that we should and work hard in the offseason, then the future is very bright for our program."
The Bruins return six of seven starters and four all-conference nominees. Belmont will have a chance to charter new rivalries as the school moves to the Ohio Valley Conference for the 2012 season. For now, though, losing in such a fashion to their rivals makes the 20+ win 2011 season bittersweet.
