Jackson, Miss. – The Belhaven Blazers split their opening two matches in the Belhaven-Millsaps Invitational on Friday, falling to Rhodes and defeating Dillard in a pair of 3-1 games.
Belhaven dropped its opener of the weekend against Rhodes, falling 19-25, (25-18), 20-25, 13-25.
The Blazers overcame a first set defeat with a strong second set, however, the Green and Gold were unable to tame the Lynx in the final two sets.
Chae Levy led the Blazers in the match with 13 kills, while
Lauren Whiting and
Jackie Gunderson finished with six and five, respectively in the first match.
Belhaven did have eight aces in the match, with
Cassidy Fitzpatrick (3), Whiting (2), and
Molly Boyer (2) leading the way.
Fitzpatrick and Gunderson had solid games defensively, with 18 and 14 digs respectively.
Belhaven was also solid in the blocking category in the match, finishing with 11. Levy led the Blazers with four, while
Blaykleigh Smythe had three and
Kelly Aholt had two to go along with her 26 assists.
"First off, it was a wonderful atmosphere and environment tonight," said head coach
Justin Dee. "The fan attendance and energy really helped us and gave us a great atmosphere to play in."
In match two, Belhaven recovered after dropping the second set to win 25-19, (24-26), 26-24, 25-18.
Levy continued her strong day with 18 more kills to finish the day with 31. Whiting also had 12 kills in game two to finish with 18 in her first two matches in Rugg Arena.
Levy also had four more blocks to finish with eight on the day.
"Chae had an excellent night with her kills and when we gave her the ball we scored a lot of points," said Dee. "Cassidy and Jackie did wonderful defensively tonight and Kelly played really well passing the ball around."
Aholt added 39 assists in game two to finish with 65 in the two matches.
Gunderson led the Blazers with 21 digs in game two, while Fitzpatrick added 19 more digs.
Belhaven will return to the court on Saturday at Millsaps with games against Philander Smith and Millsaps at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m., respectively.
