Volleyball sweeps Senior Day matches against Mayville and Ozarks

BELLEVUE, Neb. -- The No. 21 Bellevue University volleyball team continued its strong play with victories over both Mayville State University and College of the Ozarks by identical 3-0 scores on Senior Day at the Gordon Lozier Athletic Center.

Bellevue improves to 23-8 overall with a pair of victories and 9-2 in NSAA play by virtue of their victory over Mayville State. The Bruins return to play on Tuesday, Oct. 25 with a pair of matches in Forest City, Iowa. At 3 p.m., the Bruins play Waldorf University before a 5 p.m. match against conference leader Viterbo University.

Following the two matches, Bellevue's three seniors – Pakalana Helekahi, Addison Smith, and Verenice Chaparro – were recognized for their contributions to the program over their careers.

#21 Bellevue 3, Mayville State 0 (25-19, 25-14, 25-12)

For the second match in a row Bellevue held their opponent to a negative hitting percentage en route to a convincing sweep of Mayville State.

The Comets hit just (-).086 on the match while the Bruins swung it at .323, their second-best attack effort of the year.

Both Mikaylah Gillespie and Shayla Scanlan reached double-figures with 10 kills apiece on .533 and .529 hitting, respectively. Hope Lambrecht recorded nine kills and Marylyn Mozena contributed seven.

Maddie Squiers dished out 43 assists to go along with eight digs on the match.

Defensively, BU was led by Pakalana Helekahi's 13 digs while Taylor Holz chipped in 10. Gillespie led the way with five block assists while Squiers and Lambrecht had the solo blocks for the Bruins.

The Bruins out-dug the Comets 41-23 for the match and out-blocked their guests by a 9.5-2 margin.

Stephany Wold had a team-best five kills for Mayville State and Megan Kolness paced the Comets with nine assists.  Digs were spread fairly evenly with Jayden Warner leading the way with eight.

#21 Bellevue 3, Ozarks 0 (25-14, 25-19, 26-24)

Bellevue continued their sweeping ways by recording their sixth-straight victory via sweep over College of the Ozarks in their second match of the day to snap the Bobcats 14-match win streak.

BU out-hit Ozarks .267-.081 on the match led by double-figure kills matches from Mikaylah Gillespie (13), Shayla Scanlan (13), and Hope Lambrecht (10). Gillespie hit .667 to lead all players in the match while Lambrecht swung at .421 and Scanlan hit .333.

Maddie Squiers again quarterbacked the Bruin offense with 45 assists to go along with nine digs.

On defense, Taylor Holz led the way with 18 digs. She was joined in double-figures by Verenice Chaparro and U'i Kepani with 14 and 10, respectively. As a team, Bellevue out-dug Ozarks 63-53 and out-blocked their opposition by an 8-6 margin. Gillespie led the way with five block assists and Pakalana Helekahi recorded BU's only solo block of the match.

Haley Stallings led the Bobcats with 16 digs while Danielle Curnes chipped in 13. Sarah Kreul (16) and Rielly Dobbs (11) combined for 27 assists.

Offensively, Ozarks had three players – Curnes, Alex Spears, and Hannah Bracker – record six kills on the afternoon.