Thursday, November 18, 2010

FORT MYERS, Fla. - The fourth-seeded Belmont Bruins shut down the fifth-seeded Mercer Bears, 3-1, in the opening contest of the Atlantic Sun Volleyball Championship, winning 25-21, 25-15, 23-25 and 25-15 at FGCU’s Alico Arena on Thursday.

Belmont advances to play Lipscomb on Friday at 5 p.m. in the first semifinal match. The Bruins’ victory sets up a "Battle of the Boulevard" match up at the A-Sun Championship for the fifth-consecutive year.The winner of the four previous matches has gone on to win the A-Sun title. The Bruins own two of those victories, winning the semifinals in 2006 and in the title game in 2009. Lipscomb won a semifinal contest in 2007 en route to its first A-Sun title and swept through conference and tournament games to its second title last season.

The Bruins took the first two matches with ease taking a six-point lead in the first set on all-conference first team member Kayla Albritton’s service ace at 17-11 and never looked back. Belmont and Mercer evened the score at 1-1 in the first set before Belmont jumped in front again. The Bruins held a nine-point lead seven times throughout the set before Carly Frazier hit an ace to give Belmont a 10-point advantage.

Belmont (14-14) and Mercer (14-18) rallied back and forth until an attack error by Allison McCoy gave the Bears the final lead of the game at 22-19. Sloppy play by the Bruins’ proved to be all that Mercer would need to take the third set.

Mercer took that momentum into the fourth set, going up by two points early, but Belmont did not stay down for long, going on a 13-3 run capped off by an error by Mercer. The Bears brought the difference to within three, but the Bruins continued to battle before eventually taking the set and match.

Belmont hit .283 for the match compared to Mercer’s .122, while Albritton and teammate Jen Myer each recorded a double-double for Belmont. Albritton tallied a match-high 19 kills to go along with 13 digs, while Myer posted 12 kills and 13 digs. All-Freshman selection Hannah Miranda proved her worth to the Bruins with a match-high 51 assists. 

Mercer’s Aimee Frutchey posted a double-double with a team-high 12 kills and 12 digs, while Libero of the Year Charlotte Harris had a team-high 20 digs.

The game between Belmont and Lipscomb can be viewed on ASun.TV for free and followed on live stats at AtlanticSun.org.