The William Jewell volleyball team topped Bellarmine University Saturday afternoon in Louisville, Ky. in four sets by scores of 27-29, 25-23, 26-24, 27-25 to earn their first Great Lakes Valley Conference win of the year. The Cardinals now stand at 5-5 overall and 1-1 in the GLVC while the Knights fall to 8-2 and 0-2 in league play.
Each set was a back-and-forth affair, decided by just two points. In set two, Jewell opened up a 21-16 lead behind three kills from Stefanie Ritcherkessing and
Leslie Booth. However, Cardinals struggled to put away the set as Bellarmine pulled within 24-23 on three consecutive kills before
Grace Miller tied the match at one set a piece with a kill.
Sets three and four were much of the same as the Cardinals opened up early leads, including a 12-5 margin in the final set forcing a BU timeout only to see the Knights crawl back into the game. From there Bellarmine outscored Jewell 20-15 but the Cards battled back late getting kills from Booth and
Paige Cunningham to go up 26-25. Sophomore
Jenna Rau's fifth kill of the day ended the match and gave Jewell the hard-fought victory.
The Cardinals got production across the board as five players reached double-figure kills led by junior middle blockers
Grace Miller and
Madeline Johnson who each posted career highs of 14. Cunningham also added 14 while Booth had 11 (career high) and Richterkessing enjoyed her fourth double-double of the year with 10 kills and 14 digs.
Olivia Tolberd posted a career high 36 digs, which is second in a single game for Jewell since moving to the NCAA.
Alix Weigel had 31 assists while
Amy Lindhorst added 23.
As a team the Cardinals posted a season-high attack percentage of .266 while collecting 72 kills, 86 digs, and seven blocks, led by Miller with five and Booth with three.
The Cardinals are back in action on Tuesday as the travel to Bolivar, Mo. to take on non-conference opponent Southwest Baptist at 7:00 p.m. Jewell returns home for the first time this season next weekend as they will play host to Illinois Springfield on Friday and McKendree on Saturday afternoon.
