Volleyball splits to finish 3-1 at Labor Day Classic

BELLEVUE, Neb. -- The Bellevue University volleyball team split a pair of matches against Montana State University-Northern and (RV) Rocky Mountain College to close out play in the GoSarpy.com Labor Day Classic.

Bellevue (5-3) swept MSU-Northern (0-8) 3-0 before falling to Rocky Mountain (11-1) by a 3-2 margin after battling back from a two sets to none deficit to wrap up play with a 3-1 record in the Labor Day Classic.

#21 Bellevue 3, MSU Northern 0 (25-13, 25-19, 25-18)

Andrea Carson had a dominant match registering 15 kills on a blistering .625 hitting percentage. Shayla Scanlan joined her in double figures with 10 kills on .389 hitting.

Sierra Athen added a near double-double, finishing with nine kills (.167) and nine digs.

Bellevue out-hit MSU-Northern .292-.056 for the match and piled up a 41-33 advantage in digs. Olivia Galas directed the BU attack with 37 assists.

Abigail Ellison led MSU-Northern with eight kills (.069 hitting) while Shania Neubauer (.333) and Emily Gutierrez (.176) each added five kills. Hannah Amtmann led the defense with 16 digs.

(RV) Rocky Mountain 3, #21 Bellevue 2 (25-20, 25-15, 18-25, 11-25, 15-13)

Rocky Mountain raced out to a 2-0 lead in the match by comfortable margins despite solid play from Bellevue. However, BU remained undeterred and capitalized when things broke in their favor in the third and fourth sets to force a deciding fifth set which was played tight but saw Rocky Mountain prevail.

Shayla Scanlan led five Bruins in double-figure kills with 15 on .314 hitting. Andrea Carson (14 kills, .102 hitting), Sierra Athen (13, .140), Coree Lipovsky (12, .409), and Rosa Reed-Bouley (10, .094) all joined her as BU hit .151 as a team, out-hitting the Battlin' Bears.

Athen picked up her team-leading fourth double-double adding 22 digs to her kill total. Olivia Galas finished with a match-high 56 assists and added eight digs.

Daniella Russell (.370) led three Rocky Mountain players in double-figures with 11 kills as Hailey Copinga (.136) and Olivia L'Ami (-.022) added 10 apiece.

Natalie Hilderman directed the offense with 36 assists. Ruby Kallenbach led the defensive efforts with 26 digs and was supported by Annie Cooke's 16 but Rocky was out-dug by the Bruins 91-84.

Up Next:

Bellevue continues their five-match homestand on Wednesday, Sept. 5 against Peru State College. The match is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start at the Gordon Lozier Athletic Center.