NEW ORLEANS, La. – Xavier University of New Orleans spoiled the Belhaven Volleyball team's quest at a record breaking 26th victory on Monday night, defeating the Blazers 3-1. The Gold Nuggets swept the season series by beating Belhaven for the second time in as many months.

Coming into the match, the Blazers were riding high on a six game winning streak. Even more impressive was the fact that Belhaven had won all six matches in a five day span dating back to last Tuesday.

With an emotional, record-tying victory over University of Texas-Tyler on Saturday afternoon, Belhaven had the looks of a tired team on Monday. A team that despite playing some of their best volleyball of the season over the weekend; is starting to feel the grind of a long season.

Xavier took the opening set 25-21; in a lengthy back and forth battle between the two teams. The Gold Nuggets were able to pull away in the final points after being gridlocked with the Blazers for most of the set.

Belhaven struck back in the second set with a nail-biting 26-24 win that brought the match back to a tie.

Like in the first set, neither team was able to get any long rallies going, which resulted in a 24-24 tie. A few well-timed kills by the front line of Belhaven gave the Blazers the two points necessary to win the set.

The third set is when the two teams started to go in separate directions. After two extremely close sets, Xavier consistently found holes in the Belhaven defense and forced them into a few of their 30 errors on the night. The Gold Nuggets took the game 25-17.

The match came to a close in the fourth when Xavier pulled away at the end once again to take the set 25-20.
Taylor Williams led all Blazers in kills with 13, while Morgan Hofacker and Natalie Davis each had eight of their own. Setter Erin Bradley assisted on 33 of the Blazers 41 kills.

Gabriella Zorzoli was the defensive leader for Belhaven with 17 digs. Hofacker (14 digs) and Bradley (13 digs) were also major contributors on defense.

The Blazers will have an opportunity to turn their trip around when they take on Loyola Tuesday night at 7 p.m. Belhaven defeated the Wolfpack in five sets back on September 25th at Rugg Arena.