LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Despite rolling to a 25-16 victory in the first set of its Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) opener at Bellarmine, the Truman State University volleyball team dropped the next three sets en route to a four-set loss on Saturday afternoon inside Knights Hall.

The Bulldogs fell to 3-6 overall while the Knights are now 9-1 on the season, including 1-1 in conference action. Offensively, the Purple and White were led by a trio of players with seven kills including Natalie Brimeyer, Emma Berthold and Holly Hildebrand, while Savvy Hughes notched 27 assists. On the serve, Meghan Gasper and Lauren Wacker were each responsible for two service aces with the team's fifth coming off the hand of Hughes. Defensively, Wacker (24), Jasmine Brown (20) and Gasper (14) each tallied 10+ digs and above the net, Brimeyer and Berthold each blocked eight attacks.

In the first set, Truman didn't really sting the ball with a .135 hitting percentage, but Bellarmine didn't help itself with a -.067 mark and nine errors to just six kills. The Bulldogs scored eight of the first 11 points and forced the Knights to use an early timeout. Out of the breather, the home team was able to slim the margin to two twice including 8-6 and 11-9, but never got closer than that. The visitors led by as many as nine when the set had been sealed, 25-16.

In the second set, the two squads went back and forth early on with five ties and three lead changes through the first 10 points scored. That 10th point, though, came in the midst of a 10-3 run for the hosts that put them ahead by six, 14-8. From that point until the end of the set, the margin was never smaller than three, 14-11 and 15-12, before Bellarmine rattled off the final seven points and won it by 11, 25-14.

The third set of the day was the tightest one of the day according to ties and lead changes as it saw a combined 10 and five, respectively. Six of those deadlocks and two of those lead changes happened in the first 16 points and after it was 8-8, Truman scored the next five in a row to go ahead, 13-8. Bellarmine then called a timeout, but after that, the Bulldogs were able to get to set point at 24-18. Then, the Knights rallied with seven points in a row to go up by one, 25-24. Three more ties occured and it was 27-27, but  the home team put up the final two points to win the set and go up two sets to one.

Bellarmine was ready to put the match away with a 9-1 spurt to open the fourth set, but Truman didn't go away quietly as it used a 9-4 run of its own to pull within three, 13-10. However, that's the closest it would get as the Knights led by as many as eight, took the set 25-17 and the match in four.

Next up, the Bulldogs will travel to St. Joseph, Mo. on Tuesday to face Missouri Western State with first serve set for 7 p.m.

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