Missed Opportunities Lead to 1-2 Finish at Belmont Invitational

Madison Landsdown playing against MTSU on a day honoring her late brother Will (Kali Akridge)

Belmont’s volleyball team had plenty of chances for an undefeated weekend, but missed opportunities cost the Bruins a pair of victories in the Belmont Invitational. 

Playing in front of a home crowd for the first time this season, Belmont lost in five sets to both the University of South Alabama and Samford University before salvaging the weekend with a five-set win over Middle Tennessee State University. 

Sunday’s match against MTSU was the second annual Will’s Match, which honored the life of junior Belmont volleyball player Madison Landsdown’s late brother, Will Landsdown, who had Niemann-Pick Type C disease.

Belmont donated $5 from every ticket sold for Sunday’s match to the Ara Parseghian Medical Research Fund, which supports research to find a treatment and eventually a cure for NPC. 

“It was just such a blessing,” said Landsdown. “I have just insane gratitude to be able to celebrate my brother and come out with a win in a five-setter.”

The Bruins’ record improved to 2-4 after the win against MTSU, and with all six matches going to five sets, head coach Fritz Rosenberg had a clear message for what the team needs to do going forward.

“We better do some good conditioning work,” Rosenberg said. “If we’re going to keep playing five-setters and tight matches, that’s what it’s going to take.”

But despite losing two winnable matches to South Alabama and Samford, Rosenberg saw valuable growth in his team. 

“We keep learning from the previous match, and I’m very proud that we are learning and getting better day to day,” said Rosenberg. “It’s a long season, so if we keep that up, I think we’ll be pretty good at the end of the year.”

Belmont’s opening set against South Alabama gave the Bruins plenty to learn from, as they mustered only eight kills to the Jaguars’ 18 in a 25-18 loss.

Belmont rebounded from there, capitalizing on 17 South Alabama errors across the second and third sets to take a 2-1 lead. 

In the fourth set, a kill by junior Mialee Dabbelt put Belmont up 24-21, one point away from a win.

They wouldn’t get one, as the Jaguars forced a fifth set with five straight points, three of which came while facing match point.

There were seven ties and five lead changes in the fifth set, but the match ended with South Alabama narrowly winning 15-13 after a bad set by the Bruins and a block by the Jaguars closed things out.

Belmont found itself in a familiar position at the beginning of Saturday’s match against Samford: down 1-0.

With 10 kills and nine errors in 34 attempts, Belmont managed a paltry 0.029 hitting percentage in its 25-19 opening-set loss.

But just as they did the day before, the Bruins responded to a lackluster opening set by winning the second and third sets, this time with an improved 0.276 hitting percentage.

What followed felt like a cruel case of déjà vu for Bruins fans, as the team lost the fourth set again after having several chances to win the match.

Belmont once again found itself just one point away from victory after a kill from junior Emily Warmenhoven put the team up 24-22. 

Samford’s senior Ally Cordes responded with back-to-back kills to even the match at 24 apiece. 

A service error by Samford gave the Bruins a one-point lead and the serve, which prompted an unconventional timeout from Rosenberg.

“It was a little abnormal to call when you’re serving, but I wanted a chance to talk about our defense,” said Rosenberg.

Coming out of the timeout, Cordes refused to allow Belmont to get a stop, recording another kill and re-tying the match. 

All told, after the Warmenhoven kill, there were 10 ties, four lead changes and nine unconverted match-point opportunities for Belmont en route to a 35-33 set win for the Bulldogs.

Samford went on to win the fifth set 15-10, handing the Bruins their second loss of the weekend.

 Despite the two losses, Belmont had 12 match-point opportunities across both games.

In the closing match against MTSU, Belmont dropped the opening set for the fifth time in six matches before responding with wins in the second and third sets. 

“I think the other teams are really coming at us, so we have to be prepared for a battle,” said Rosenberg. “I would like to come out and fight a little harder from the get-go.”

After going up 2-1, the Bruins couldn’t shut the door in the fourth set, leading to a fifth-set showdown. 

Belmont would exorcise its fifth-set demons, prevailing 15-10. 

Despite the roller coaster weekend, the outcome never seemed in doubt for Landsdown. 

“We fought hard in the first few matches, and we had talked about just having joy in every single moment because that’s what Will would want us to do,” said Landsdown. “We knew that we were ultimately going to pull it out because we had joy.”

Rosenberg commended Landsdown for her performance in a match that he “can’t even imagine playing in.”

“Her showing up, rising to the occasion and playing even better for a huge group of people here for her, I’m so proud of her,” said Rosenberg. 

Landsdown and the rest of the Bruins will be back in action Sep. 12 and 13 for the Duke/ NC State Invitational. 

This article was written by Sam Dicus