Box Score NASHVILLE, Tenn. - - Belmont (6-6) fell in a close contest to Evansville (10-3), 3-1 in the Curb Event Center Tuesday evening. The Bruins lost by a combined total of eight points, as the two teams traded leads and ties throughout the match.
"It was a good match," Head Coach Deane Webb said. "Two teams that defend well, that really fly around the back row and make a number of plays. It was a match that, in many ways, I think we competed well, but just made some poor decisions at inopportune times."
Belmont got another 20 kill night from senior Maggie Johnson (Naperville, Ill.) who paced the Bruins in that category. Belmont struggled offensively as a group at times, but managed to get double figure kills from three different players, including sophomores Jen Myer (New Braunfels, Texas) and Allison McCoy (Huntington Beach, Calif.). Defensively, the Bruins put on another strong showing, led by sophomore libero Jamie Lundstrom (La Grange, Ill.) who finished the night with 29 digs. It was the fourth time this season Lundstrom has recorded 20 or more digs. She currently leads the conference with 5.03 digs/set. Belmont also got 20 digs from Myer and double digit outings from three other Bruins in that category.
"Evansville is a strong offensive team," Webb said. "They come in hitting about .250 for the year, which is an exceptional number. I was very pleased with our back row defense. We had kids flying around, seeing the game, playing in order and making good defensive plays. There were times we got a little ahead of ourselves, we were reading and going to places before we really saw the ball, maybe over-reading, but overall, I was very pleased with our back row. Front row, our block did a fair job tonight. That's one of the things we have been working on in the gym and hopefully we can continue to improve that."
The Bruins finished with seven total blocks, led by junior Amy Van Buren with four. Another bright spot for Belmont was the continued strong production from McCoy, who finished with double digit kills (10) for the second straight match. While having someone besides Johnson as an offensive option is an improvement, Webb believes his team still has room to grow in that area.
"The struggle for our team this year is going to be putting the ball down," Webb said. "We know we are a better defensive team than we have been in years past, but we know also that we may not have the same offensive capabilities that we've had in some other years. I believe we can be much better offensively than we are right now and that's up to me to do a better job training our kids to allow them to be successful. I feel the biggest difference in the match tonight was their hitters were more mature and more intelligent than we were. They put themselves in better positions to score and made better decisions about what they did. That comes back to me as a coach. I need to have our kids trained better to give them a chance to be successful."
Belmont struggled from the service line, committing nine service errors in the match, some at very inopportune moments. The Bruins turned in only three service aces against Evansville, a low for the team. Myer led the team with two service aces. She is currently the top ranked server in the nation at 0.92 aces per set according to the first round of NCAA statistics released this afternoon. Myer now has 38 aces on the season, which leads the Atlantic Sun.
The Bruins will be back in action this weekend as they travel to New Orleans to take part in the Tulane Invitational. Belmont opens the weekend tournament against Lamar at 10 p.m. on Friday. Webb hopes the final non-conference tournament of the season will give his team a chance to continue to improve before starting conference play next weekend.
"It's a great opportunity," Webb said. "Tulane is a strong opponent. They are every year. We're looking forward to seeing how we match up against another athletic team. I know a few of those players there and one of our team members played with a couple of members of that team, so we know them. We're excited to be there and compete, along with playing Lamar and South Alabama. It's a chance to get better. One thing that stands out to me with our team is there are parts of our game that are so much better than they were three weeks ago. That's a credit to our girls listening, to working hard and wanting to improve and hopefully this weekend will be another opportunity to do that."
