BELMONT — Belmont closed out the regular season with a 25–21, 25–10, 25–23 sweep over visiting River Ridge Thursday night at BHS.
The Braves finished the regular season 14–10 overall and 9–3 in the Six Rivers West (third place) after posting their fourth-straight conference victory.
Senior outside hitter Reese Runde floored a team-high 13 kills and made 22 digs to lead the defense, while junior setter Kaci Riechers passed out 22 assists, made 10 digs and served up a pair of aces to lead the surging Braves.
Junior outside hitter Morgan Freeman added eight kills and junior Courtney Fritz made 10 digs in the back row.
“The girls started out very strong in both the first and second sets,” said Belmont head coach Danielle Bonin. “Our passing on serve receive was the best that its been all season the last two matches.”
After building a quick 2–0 lead, it wasn’t all smooth sailing in the third set for the home team.
The fourth-place Timberwolves (9–13, 6–6 SRW) jumped out to 7–2 lead, and held leads at 15–14 and 16–15 before a kill by Reese Runde and an ace by Claire Runde (one of her four aces on the night), gave the Braves a 18–16 lead.
Morgan Christensen had a block to make it 23–19, a Kaci Riechers kill made it match-point and the game and match ended one point later on a double hit by River Ridge.
“River Ridge did a good job at serving and took six points right away from us, causing us to be down 7–2, but we came back allowing both teams to stay neck in neck throughout the entire third set. It was a good volleyed set, but we came out at the end fighting to earn the sweep. We were able to find some of River Ridges weaknesses and were able to capitalize and pull out the W.”
Belmont played one of its best matches of the season last Tuesday, sweeping SRW champion Highland 25–11, 25–13, 25–19. Runde had 13 kills, seven digs and five aces, while Kaci Riechers added eight assists and five aces in the upset victory.
Bonin called the sweep a “huge win,” the kind of confidence-building win that could carry the Braves in the WIAA Division 4 regional playoffs, which began Tuesday.
Belmont earned the No. 7 seed and opened at home with a rematch against No. 10 River Ridge. The winner will advance to face No. 2 Highland or No. 15 Highland in a regional semifinal Thursday night. The regional finals will be held Saturday night.
“Have four consecutive wins is a major boost going into tournament play,” added Bonin. “The girls know their potential, they are playing exactly where I wanted them too going into postseason. Just like all of the other area teams, we are all now 0–0, everything counts. This is where we really need to focus on finding the areas of weakness on the other teams and continue to change up our offense to win points for our team.”
Belmont 3, Highland 0
(from Tuesday, Oct. 10 @ Belmont)
Highland 11 13 19
Belmont 25 25 25
Belmont stat leaders
Kills: Reese Runde 13, Lainey Riechers 5, Morgan Freeman 5. Blocks: Kalli Hodgson 2, R. Runde 1, Christensen 1. Assists: Kaci Riechers 8, R. Runde 5. Aces: Kaci Riechers 8, Runde 5. Digs: Claire Runde 8, R. Runde 7, Bailey Mester 6.
Belmont 3, River Ridge 0
(from Thursday, Oct. 12 @ Belmont)
River Ridge 21 10 23
Belmont 25 25 25
Belmont stat leaders
Kills: Reese Runde 13, Morgan Freeman 8, Lainey Riechers 5. Blocks: Kalli Hodgson 2, L. Riechers 2. Assists: Kaci Riechers 22, Addy McNett 6. Aces: Claire Runde 4, Freeman 2, L. Riechers 2, K. Riechers 2. Digs: Reese Runde 21, Courtney Fritz 10, K. Riechers 10.
