Box Score JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State volleyball team dropped its first Ohio Valley Conference match of the season, 3-2 to Belmont on Saturday afternoon at Pete Mathews Coliseum.
After a 5-0 start to open conference action, the Gamecocks (12-9, 5-1 OVC) fell to a tough Belmont squad 3-2 (22-25, 25-20, 25-18, 16-25, 12-15). The loss snapped a six-game win streak for Jax State and was the first defeat at home this season.
"I'm disappointed in the loss," JSU head coach
Terry Gamble said. "We had chances to win. In game one we gave it away late and in game five we had the lead and an error gave it back."
Freshman
Allyson Zuhlke had a big day with a team-high 15 kills on a .393 attack percentage. Senior
Nicole Merget had the next best with 12 kills and
Emily Rutherford was the third and final Gamecock in double digits with 10 kills. Freshman setter
Jennifer Hart paced the offense with 40 of JSU's 45 assists.
Defensively,
Samantha Bohne led the way recording 25 digs followed by
Brianne Glidewell's 11. Glidewell also had eight kills and three blocks in a strong performance.
JSU trailed in the opening set 20-15 late but rallied to tie the set 22-22 following a pair of Glidewell kills. Still, Belmont would get the final three points to take the set.
In the second set, Belmont jumped out to an early lead but JSU would come back and build a 16-11 lead. After the set was tied 18-18, the Gamecocks finished on a 7-2 run to win the set and tie the match heading into the break.
The third set would see JSU hit a match best .344 combined to power to a 25-18 set win. Zuhlke had seven of her 15 kills in the third set alone on an outstanding .875 attack percentage.
As strong as the third set was for JSU, the fourth turned out to be the opposite. After taking a 7-6 lead, the Bruins never slowed on their way to a 25-16 set win to force a decisive fifth set.
In the fifth, the Gamecocks took a 10-8 lead on a Rutherford kill but a Belmont timeout ceased momentum as the Bruins responded with a 7-2 run to end the match.
Belmont had four players with double-digit kills led by Jocelyn Youngdahl's 18 and nearly all coming from Emma Price's 69 assists.
"We'll just keep trying to get better and do the little things that will help us win going forward," Gamble said.
Next up the Gamecocks travel to Alabama A&M for a midweek match on Wednesday night and from there will take to the road to resume OVC action visiting Eastern Kentucky on Friday night and Morehead State on Saturday afternoon.
