Box Score CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. -- Belmont (2-2) defeated Chattanooga (1-3) 3-0 on the road Tuesday. The Bruins bounced back from a 1-2 weekend in the Belmont Invitational to win 25-22, 25-18 and 25-22. Belmont will head to Lawrence, Kan., for the Kansas Invitational this weekend.
Atlantic Sun Preseason Player of the Year senior Maggie Johnson (Naperville, Ill.) paced the Bruins with 14 kills and a team high .357 hitting percentage. The Bruins returned to form from last season at the service line, recording a season-high seven aces, including four from conference leader sophomore Jen Myer (New Braunfels, Texas). Myer also added 12 kills. While the play wasn't always pretty, it got the job done, Head Coach Deane Webb said.
"It wasn't the most aesthetically played match, but our team played hard, stayed aggressive throughout, and came away with a good win tonight. Our serve remained aggressive the entire match. Although we had a few more errors than I would have liked, it caused our opponent to spend a great deal of time out of system. This made defense much easier on our side of the net."
The Bruins trailed early in set one, but used a string of three straight kills to pull even and moved ahead at 15-14. Belmont would go on to win the set, 25-22 and then ran away with set two, 25-18. The Bruins led throughout set three and held off a UTC rally late in the set to win 25-22 and take the match. Freshman Scarlet Gable (Munford, Tenn.), coming off a 29 dig performance against Sacramento State last weekend, led the team with 14 digs, while sophomore Hannah Miranda (Covington, La.) recorded 33 set assists and helped Belmont to a .290 team hitting percentage.
"Scarlet did a good job tonight in her first time playing libero," Webb said. "After a challenging first set, she settled down and held her own."
Belmont will travel to the Midwest for the Kansas Invitational. The tournament will be the first of back-to-back trips to the Midwest for the Bruins. The tournament will be another test for the young Belmont team as they use a tough non-conference schedule to prepare for the conference season.
"For this weekend, we will really need to pass well to have a legitimate opportunity to play with a much more physical Kansas team," Webb said. "If we remain in system and run a quick offense, it will be interesting to see what we can do against bigger blockers than what we'll see during the majority of our season."
Belmont will face host Kansas in the first game of the invitational before taking on South Dakota State in the evening session. The Bruins will wrap up play in the tournament against Appalachian State with an early morning game on Saturday. Belmont will face Kansas at 12 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 2nd. Live stats and full recaps from the Kansas Invitational will be available at www.belmontbruins.com
