NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Belmont University volleyball hits the road once again down to Oxford, Miss to close out their preseason campaign at the Ole Miss Rebel Classic this week.
The Bruins will face the University of Mississippi at 6:00pm central time on Thursday, September 9. Then the following day they will face Southern Mississippi at 1:00pm central time and Buffalo at 7:30pm central time.
"We are coming off of a great weekend with victories vs two amazing programs in UTEP and Memphis," said Head Coach Tony Howell. "These two victories will help us going into this weekend competing against Ole Miss, Southern Miss, and Buffalo."
Ole Miss is 7-1 so far this season with the only loss coming from OVC conference member UT-Martin. The Rebels are returning eight letter winners, six starters, as well as welcoming seven newcomers in 2015. In the first week of competition, Nakeyta Clair was named SEC Offensive Player of the Week and Aubrey Edie earned SEC Setter of the Week honors. Junior setter Aubrey Edie was named tournament MVP this last weekend finishing with 126 assists, 10 kills, 21 digs and 9 blocks. Senior middle blocker was Ty Laporte was also named to the all-tournament team after recording 18 kills and 13 blocks on the weekend.
Southern Miss is undefeated so far this season with a 9-0 record and taking home the Southern Miss Invitational and the Bama Bash. Stephany Purdue was named C-USA Co-Offensive Player of the Week after recording 94 kills with an average of 4.95 per set average while hitting .254 for the week, posting three double-doubles for the week. Mary Pursell earned C-USA Defensive Player of the Week after finishing out the week with 119 digs for a 6.26 per set average.
Buffalo starts the season off 0-5 after facing two nationally ranked team; Penn State and Washington. Sophomore middle blocker Cassie Shado is leading the team with 32 kills, averaging 2 per set, while senior setter Marissa Prinzbach has tallied up 110 assists and sophomore libero Niki Bozinoski leads the defense with 54 digs.
"This will be a very good tournament for us to finish this preseason out on by watching the continued improvement from each young lady on the team," said Howell. "They are always eager to learn and improve every time they compete. They do have a very good chance to do something special."
Thursday's match against Ole Miss will be broadcasted on the SECN+ as well as there will be live stats for the other two matches. The links for all of these can be found at belmontbruins.com! Go to volleyball and the schedule to find the active links!
Tournament Match Notes
