NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Belmont University volleyball team closed the book on the 2022 season Wednesday night, falling to Murray State, 3-1, at the Curb Event Center in the season finale.Â
Belmont (8-23, 4-14 MVC) took the opening set, 25-19, before Murray State (12-16, 8-10 MVC) rebounded to win the next three frames, 16-25, 23-25, 12-25.Â
The Bruins looked to be in position for what would have been their third straight win in the series against their former OVC rival after a strong start, but the Racers battled back and closed things out with a dominant fourth set.Â
Laura Shoopman led the way for the Belmont offense, finishing with 13 kills and ten digs. Brooke Gilleland added nine kills, while Ally Peterson and Kristen Clemons each chipped in five kills.Â
Rachel McBride finished with 15 digs on the evening to end with 451 on the year, the most digs in a single season by a Bruin since Jamie Lundstrom in 2013.Â
The Bruins found success at the net, tallying ten total team bloocks, with five coming from Clemons and three each for Shoopman, Peterson, and Gilleland.Â
Clemons also added three service aces, and Lilly Lutz picked up two aces.Â
Looking for a strong start, Belmont found it behind an onslaught of kills in the first set, powering past Murray State for a 25-19 win that never felt in doubt. The Bruins were able to take advantage of several Racer miscues, and got leads of 9-4, 16-11, and 22-16 while leading wire-to-wire.Â
Murray State responded in the second set, forcing Belmont into mistakes and out-hitting the Bruins .250 to .051 to even the match at a set apiece with a 25-16 result.Â
The Bruins quickly shook off the disappointing frame by jumping out to a 7-3 edge in the third set on a Lutz service ace. Later, Belmont led 14-9 before Murray State started to chip away and cut it to just a 19-18 lead for the Bruins.Â
A 3-1 run made it 22-19 in favor of Belmont, but the Racers rattled off a furious stretch of points to take six of the final seven and win the set, 25-23.Â
Capitalizing on the momentum, Murray State put the match away with a 25-12 finish in the fourth set.Â
Season Recap
"8-23 is not a record you want, but there were some bright spots. There were some bright spots that happened throughout the course of the season, just unfortunately we weren't able to string them together enough. I thought our one week where we had our three wins was an awesome week, and I was really hopeful that all the work we had done in preseason leading up to that was going to result in a very different outcome in this conference season, but unfortunately we've had some injuries, we've had some overall issues that we're working through. We're returning 17 next year, and I look forward to having a better season next year." -- head coach Katelyn HarrisonÂ
Belmont ends their inaugural season in the Missouri Valley Conference at 4-14 in conference play, with big upset wins over Evansville and Murray State. The Bruins finished 11th in the conference standings, on the outside looking in for the MVC Tournament, which takes the top eight teams at the end of the regular season.Â
Among the season highlights, Kristen Clemons set the single-match block assist record, Rachel McBride recorded her 1,000th career dig, finished with the most digs for a Bruin since 2013 and had the second-most digs in a match in program history, Laura Shoopman rose as high as fifth in the nation for total kills and finished with the most by a Bruin since 2017, Brooke Gilleland recorded the most kills by a freshman since 2018, Shoopman and Clemons became the first pair of teammates to each finish with at least 300 kills since 2015, and Belmont secured their first three-match conference winning streak since 2018.Â
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.  Â
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