Volleyball Suffers First Home Loss Since September 24 on Friday Night

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Belmont University volleyball team was unable to stop a balanced Illinois State attack on Friday night, falling to the Redbirds in straight sets, 3-0, at the Curb Event Center. 

Illinois State (10-11, 3-7 MVC) defeated Belmont (7-16, 3-7 MVC), 25-20, 25-15, 25-14, in the first-ever meeting between the two programs. 

The Redbirds out-hit the Bruins, .308 to .074, while hitting above .300 in all three sets to hand Belmont their first home loss since Sept. 24. 

Belmont was led offensively by Lauren Walsh with eight kills and Kristen Clemons with seven kills. 

Peyton O'Brien finished with 19 assists, while Rachel McBride and Lilly Lutz each ended with seven digs. 

Making her first collegiate start, Savanah Brandt was an effective attacker in the middle, tallying three kills on six swings with one block. 

"I thought Savanah [Brandt] did a really nice job in the lineup today," head coach Katelyn Harrison said. "She's been practicing really hard the last several months, and we thought that she would do a nice job going in there." 

In the loss, Belmont was held to their fewest blocks in a match this season, tallying just two on the night. 

Illinois State jumped ahead and surged in the first set to a 20-10 lead.  

However, behind excellent serving from McBride, Belmont climbed back into the mix with a 10-3 run that featured a heavy dose of kills from Clemons.  

Belmont cut things to 22-18 and 23-20, but Illinois State won the final two points to take a 1-0 lead in sets. 

In the second and third frames, the Redbirds halted any sort of Belmont run by taking back points immediately, finishing with a side-out percentage of 72.5% for the match. 

"We just need to find a little more production from our pins," Harrison said. "I thought Brooke [Gilleland] did a nice job in the back row, but again, we have to find ways to get more kills. Kristen [Clemons] had a good night, Lauren [Walsh] played really well, but it's hard--we've got some injuries and we're trying to run new lineups, but without making excuses we just have to work harder." 

Illinois State tallied nine service aces on the match, keeping Belmont off balance. 

Up Next 

Belmont will look to rebound quickly with a home matchup against Bradley on Saturday evening. 

First serve from the Curb Event Center is scheduled for 5 p.m.  

The match will be streamed on ESPN3, and live stats will be available on BelmontBruins.com. In-game updates will be posted to Twitter by @BelmontVB. 

The game will be a "Pink Out" with all fans encouraged to wear pink in support of breast cancer awareness and the Susan G. Komen Foundation. 

Tickets can be purchased here.   

Final Word 

"I think one advantage of having to play tomorrow on such a quick turnaround is that the people that did nice things hopefully feel that. Overall, I thought our outsides got set a ton of balls in not-so-great situations, so we've got to talk them through tomorrow how to turn some of those errors into remain-in-plays. But also, we've got to get more production from our middles and our right-side, whichever one we go with, just so that we can draw a block. But a pro going into tomorrow is that Bradley has a short turnaround to try and scout us with a brand new lineup, and if we do a couple things a little bit better, that's a different match." --head coach Katelyn Harrison 

Follow Belmont volleyball on social media - @BelmontVB on Twitter and @belmontvball on Instagram - for complete coverage of the Bruins. Stay up to date with all of Belmont's athletic programs via the official app of the Belmont Bruins, available both in the Apple App Store and on Google Play.                       

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