Headlines
Solid Defense Lifts Ole Miss Past Belmont
Nakeyta Clair
Photo courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics
Solid defense and five players with at least five kills helped the Ole Miss volleyball team to a 3-0 win against Belmont here Thursday night at the Gillom Sports Center in the first match of the Rebel Classic.
With the win, the Rebels improved to 8-1. They will face Buffalo at 11 a.m., Friday followed by Southern Miss at 5:30 p.m., to close out the tournament.
Ole Miss led the first set 9-7, but went on a 16-8 run to close out Belmont 25-14. In the second set, the Rebels jumped out to a 13-5 lead, before Belmont called timeout. The Bruins never got closer than six, as the Rebels hit .467 in that set to finish it off 25-15 and earn a 2-0 lead in the match.
Belmont tried to push the match to a fourth set. They trailed 20-17, but won five of the next six points to take a 22-21 lead. The Rebels gained their first match point (24-23) on an attack error from Belmont, but the Bruins staved off that and another match point, before Ty Laporte notched back-to-back kills at 25-25 to give the Rebels the set 27-25 and the match.
Quick Hits
• Ole Miss had 57 digs, an average of 19 digs per set
• Three players finished with double-digit digs. Kristen Brashear had 14, Caroline Adams tallied 12 and Kate Gibsonrecorded 11.
• Ty Laporte led the Rebels with nine kills on a .312 clip. She also added four blocks.
• Aubrey Edie tallied six kills on a .625 clip, passed out 29 assists and added nine digs and two block assists.
• With a .417 attack percentage, Nakeyta Clair has now hit above .300 in eight of nine matches, including seven above .400.
Quoting Head Coach Steven McRoberts
“We played really low error, which is something we’ve been training hard to do, and to see our team do that, I was really proud of them. We didn’t execute well in the third set, and Belmont started getting some momentum. Belmont started playing the way that we’ve seen them play [on film], and we are just really happy to get out of here in three.”
For more information on Ole Miss Volleyball, follow the Rebels on Twitter, @OleMissVB, on Facebook at OleMissVolleyball and on Instagram at OleMissVB. Also follow Coach McRoberts on Twitter, @CoachMcRoberts.
Courtesy of Ole Miss Athletics
| Mon, Nov 4 |  | vs Long Island University | W, 90-60 |
| Fri, Nov 8 |  | vs Grambling | W, 66-64 |
| Tue, Nov 12 |  | vs South Alabama | W, 64-54 |
| Sat, Nov 16 |  | vs Colorado State | W, 84-69 |
| Thu, Nov 21 |  | vs Oral Roberts | L, 100-68 |
| Thu, Nov 28 |  | vs BYU | W, 96-85 OT |
| Fri, Nov 29 |  | vs 13 Purdue | L, 80-78 |
| Tue, Dec 3 |  | @ Louisville | W, 86-63 |
| Sat, Dec 7 |  | vs Lindenwood | W, 86-53 |
| Sat, Dec 14 |  | vs Southern Miss | W, 77-46 |
| Tue, Dec 17 |  | vs Southern | W, 74-61 |
| Sat, Dec 21 |  | vs Queens University | W, 80-62 |
| Sat, Dec 28 |  | @ Memphis | L, 87-70 |
| Sat, Jan 4 |  | vs Georgia | W, 63-51 |
| Wed, Jan 8 |  | @ 23 Arkansas | W, 73-66 |
| Sat, Jan 11 |  | vs LSU | W, 77-65 |
| Tue, Jan 14 |  | @ 5 Alabama | W, 74-64 |
| Sat, Jan 18 |  | @ 17 Mississippi State | L, 81-84 |
| Wed, Jan 22 |  | vs 13 Texas A&M | L, 62-63 |
| Sat, Jan 25 |  | @ Missouri | 5:00 PM SECN |
| Wed, Jan 29 |  | vs Texas | 8:00 PM ESPN2 |
| Sat, Feb 1 |  | vs 2 Auburn | 3:00 PM TBA |
| Tue, Feb 4 |  | vs 10 Kentucky | 6:00 PM ESPN |
| Sat, Feb 8 | | @ LSU | 7:30 PM SECN |
| Wed, Feb 12 |  | @ South Carolina | 6:00 PM SECN |
| Sat, Feb 15 | | vs 17 Mississippi State | 5:00 PM TBA |
| Sat, Feb 22 |  | @ Vanderbilt | 2:30 PM SECN |
| Wed, Feb 26 | | @ 2 Auburn | 6:00 PM TBA |
| Sat, Mar 1 |  | vs 12 Oklahoma | 1:00 PM TBA |
| Wed, Mar 5 |  | vs 1 Tennessee | 8:00 PM TBA |
| Sat, Mar 8 |  | @ 6 Florida | 5:00 PM SECN |