Belles post 3-2 mark over break
By KATIE McVOY
Sports Writer
The Saint Mary's volleyball team increased its record to 14-11 and 3-3 in the MIAA conference last week.
The Belles faced Kalamazoo College, Beloit College, and played in the Carthage College Tournament, finishing with a record of 3-2 for the week.
Saint Mary's dropped the match to Kalamazoo College 3-1.
"The game against Kalamazoo was an important one," senior Agnes Bill said. "It was a conference game that would help determine whether we were in third of fourth place in the conference."
The Belles are currently in fourth place in the MIAA following the close match with Kalamazoo.
"Even though we lost, all the games were very close," Bill said.
After five days off, Saint Mary's returned to the court ready to play, defeating Beloit College 3-0.
"After coming back from fall break we played pretty well," Bill said. "It was a good game for us to get used to playing together again."
The big news for the Belles came during the tournament at Carthage College. Freshman Emily Nihill was named outstanding player by the coaches of all six teams participating in the tournament. She led the Belles defensively with 39 digs.
Saint Mary's dropped its first match of the tournament to Carthage, but came back to beat Mt. Mary and Concordia in the following games. In order to win those games, however, the Belles had to adjust their playing style.
"The teams weren't very strong," Bill said. "It was a big adjustment for us. The other teams had a lot of tip and roll shots and we had to work as a team in order to adjust to that style of playing."
"We showed that we could stay focused and that will help us in the conference tournament," Suzanne Martin added.
Bill led the offense with 46 kills. Jayne Ozbolt and Jolie LeBeau assisted Nihill on defense with 14 and 13 blocks, respectively.
The Belles play their last regular season game tonight at Defiance College at 6:30 p.m.
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, October 27, 1999
