It was another difficult evening on the court for the Belles as they dropped their seventh consecutive match Tuesday against ranked conference foe Hope College.
Saint Mary's (3-13, 1-7 MIAA) continues to struggle within its conference. Of its last seven losses, five have come against MIAA opponents.
The No. 13 Flying Dutch defeated the Belles in straight sets (25-10, 25-16, 25-15) to improve to 11-4 (7-1 MIAA) on the season.
Hope jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the first set and never looked back, posting a .615 hitting percentage then and finishing with a .449 for the match.
The Belles narrowed the deficit to 13-9 in the second set before the Flying Dutch went on a hot streak, winning 12 of the last 19 points to complete the set. The Flying Dutch were again in control the entire third set, finally finishing the Belles by a score of 25-15.
Junior Lindsey Stuss paced the Belles offense with eight kills in the match while sophomore Stephanie Bodien added seven kills and eight digs in the losing effort. Freshman Hailee Leitz picked up a team-high 19 assists.
Flying Dutch star Jessica Maier led both teams with 18 digs and 15 assists in the win.
The teams will meet again at Hope towards the end of the season. The match will be the regular season finale for both the Belles and the Flying Dutch. In order to earn a better seed in the MIAA tournament, the Belles will need to end their losing streak, which hopefully will come this weekend.
Saint Mary's will take part in a triangular event this weekend against conference opponent Albion and Beloit College in Albion, Mich., with matches scheduled for 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. The Belles last win was against Albion Sept. 10, a trend they hope to repeat Saturday.
