Volleyball Set for Season Finale Against Murray State

Belmont (8-22, 4-13 MVC) vs. Murray State (11-16, 7-10 MVC) 

Wednesday, Nov. 16 | 5pm 

ESPN+ | Live Stats | Tickets

Curb Event Center | Nashville, Tennessee 

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- For the final time in 2022, the Belmont University volleyball team will take to the Curb Event Center on Wednesday night at 5 p.m. for a rivalry clash with Murray State. 

The season finale will be broadcast on ESPN+, with Noah Syverson and Ellie Ivancich on the call and Hanley Riggs reporting from the sideline. 

Live in-game statistics will be available on BelmontBruins.com, and in-game updates will be posted to Twitter by @BelmontVB.  

Tickets are available here. 

What's Bruin 

• With Saturday's defeat on the road at Evansville, Belmont was eliminated from participating in the MVC Tournament, which will take the top eight teams in the regular season standings 

• Wednesday night marks the season finale for the Bruins and the final match in Belmont's inaugural campaign in the Missouri Valley Conference 

• The Bruins snapped a ten-match losing streak on Friday night on the road at Indiana State, earning a hard-fought 3-1 victory over the Sycamores to secure the season sweep of Indiana State 

• Laura Shoopman finished with 21 kills in the win, the sixth time the junior outside hitter has eclipsed 20 kills in a match this season. It marks the first time since at least 2013 that a Bruin has recorded six 20+ kill matches in a single season 

• Shoopman's 376 kills this year are the most for a Bruin since Arianna Person had 419 kills in 2017 

• Brooke Gilleland set a new career-high with 17 kills in the win over Indiana State, doing so in efficient fashion on a .343 hitting percentage, her second-highest mark this season 

• With her 212 kills, Gilleland has the most kills for a Bruin freshman since Taylor Floyd in 2018 (242), and the second-most since Arianna Person in 2014 (361) 

• Peyton O'Brien tied her career-high with 50 assists, her second 50-assist match this year 

• With her 11 kills on Saturday against Evansville, Kristen Clemons hit the 300-kill milestone for the season. Along with Laura Shoopman's 376 kills, the duo are the first pair of Bruin teammates since Brie Lewis and Arianna Person in 2015 to each have 300 or more kills in a single season 

• Rachel McBride owns 436 digs this year, the most since Ellie Ivancich in 2016 (450) and the second-most since Jamie Lundstrom in 2013 (536) 

• In a match earlier this season against Valparaiso, McBride became the first Bruin since Ivancich to eclipse 1,000 career digs  

• Belmont secured their first-ever Missouri Valley Conference win on Sept. 27 on the road at Murray State, taking down the Racers, 3-1, at Racer Arena 

• It marked the first time since the 2015 OVC Championship match that the Bruins had defeated the Racers on the road 

• Laura Shoopman finished with a match-high 15 kills, Brooke Gilleland added 12 kills, and Kristen Clemons had 11 kills. Peyton O'Brien dished out 40 assists with eight digs as Belmont out-hit Murray State, .248 to .175 

• Belmont has now won two in a row over Murray State after a five-match losing streak to the Racers 

• Last year, the Bruins took down the Racers, 3-1, at the Curb Event Center behind 17 kills from Shoopman and 12 total team blocks 

• Murray State leads the all-time series, 11-6 

• The first meeting between the two programs came in 1997 

• Belmont is 3-4 against Murray State in home matches all-time 

About the Racers 

• Murray State has locked up the No. 7 seed in the MVC Tournament, which will run from November 20-23 at Meeks Family Fieldhouse in Evansville, Indiana 

• The Racers were picked to finish 10th in the MVC Preseason Coaches Poll, one spot ahead of the Bruins 

• Murray State is coming off having to play three matches in three days on the road, taking on Evansville on Friday (L, 1-3), Indiana State on Saturday (W, 3-0), and UIC (L, 0-3) on Sunday 

• The match on Sunday against UIC was a makeup from November 4, when the Flames and Racers were supposed to play at Racer Arena before a power outage knocked out most of the power in Murray, Kentucky, forcing the teams to reschedule 

• The Racers have hit into 287 blocks this season, the most in the MVC 

• Murray State has three players in the top-15 in the Valley in kills 

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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