Tamblyn reaches 1,000 career digs with 20 dig performance on Saturday

 JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. (November 12, 2011) – Maggie Johnson tallied a match-high 19 kills to lead Belmont to a share of the Atlantic Sun regular season championship after defeating ETSU, 3-0 (27-25, 25-16, 25-23), Saturday inside Brooks Gym.

Belmont moves to 20-8 overall and 11-2 in the A-Sun, while ETSU falls to 14-15 overall and 7-6 in league play. Belmont earns a share of the league title with Lipscomb as both teams finished 11-2 in league play. The Bruins will be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming Atlantic Sun Championship.

Megan Devine (Kingsport, Tenn.) and Kayla Williams (El Paso, Texas) paced the Bucs on the afternoon. Devine finished with a team-high 14 kills and 11 digs, earning her fourth straight double-double and 14^th of the season. Meanwhile, Williams picked up her second straight double-double with 34 assists and 10 digs. Ivey Rice (Johnson City, Tenn.) just missed out on double figures as she added nine kills and seven digs.

Kiley Tamblyn (Torrance, Calif.) led the ETSU defense with 20 digs. With that performance, Tamblyn has now gone over the 1,000 dig mark for her career. She needed just 10 digs heading into the match and she reached the mark early in the second set.

Belmont had the lead for much of the first set, but ETSU rallied back to tie the score at 21. After the two teams traded the next two points, ETSU won two in a row to earn set point at 24-22. Belmont went on to take the next three to earn set point of its own. ETSU tied it right back up on a Devine kill. Belmont got a kill Allison McCoy to earn set point for the second time. The Bucs looked like they were going to knot the score back up after what appeared to be a kill from Williams. However, she was called for being in the net – giving Belmont the set, 27-25.

ETSU jumped out to an early advantage in the second set, but Belmont quickly rallied to take the lead at 9-8. The Bruins never relinquished the lead as they cruised to a 25-16 victory in the set. Belmont hit an impressive .364 in the set, while ETSU was limited to just a .176 clip.

Belmont jumped out to a quick 10-4 advantage in the third set. ETSU rallied to reel off the next four points to trail by just two at 10-8. Belmont quickly extended the lead back out by as much as eight at 18-10, but ETSU continued to chip away. Lipscomb had a 23-17 lead when the Bucs went on a 5-0 run to trail by just one. Johnson added a kill to earn the Bruins set points at 24-22, but an attack error kept the Bucs within a point at 24-23. Belmont got a kill from McCoy on the very next play to clinch the match.

Jen Myer joined Johnson with double-digit kills. Myer had 10 scores to go along with nine digs. Jamie Lundstrom led the Belmont defense with a match-high 22 digs.

ETSU will be the No. 5 seed in the next week’s Atlantic Sun Championship. They will face No. 4-seeded Kennesaw State on Thursday in the tournament quarterfinals.

For more information on ETSU volleyball, please visit ETSUBucs.com and click on the volleyball link.