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Make it back-to-back for Belmont Abbey – and all it took was doing something no other ConfCarolinas team had done all season.
Belmont Abbey won its second consecutive conference championship and ended Mount Olive’s run at an undefeated ConfCarolinas season as the Crusaders swept the Trojans 25-18, 25-23, 25-22 on Saturday in Bristol, Tennessee.
Setter Joseph Morris guided the offense to out-hit Mount Olive .367 to .124, including Belmont Abbey hitting .407 in the opening game of the conference finals. Morris also had the game-winning kill on a setter dump that prevented the second game from going into overtime.
Outside attacker Zack Puentes led the Crusaders with 12 kills on a .500 attack percentage highlighted with five kills in the final game. Pin-hitter Ryan Charles added 10 kills on a .421 attack percentage, while pin-hitter Caden Day had nine kills.
Along with the offensive performance, Puentes had a match-high six blocks.
Belmont Abbey finished with 14 blocks – nine more blocks than Mount Olive. The Crusaders also limited the Trojans to a negative attack percentage in the opening game
Outside attacker Kory Grant in the loss had a team-high 13 kills, and Tate Sanvig contributed 10 kills.
Mount Olive entered this conference tournament finals having lost two conference sets the entire season, including sweeping Belmont Abbey twice during the regular season. In addition, the Trojans were attempting to become the first team since the ConfCarolinas received an NCAA Tournament automatic bid to go undefeated in conference play.
Mount Olive nearly avoided the sweep with a late rally in the third game.
Belmont Abbey extended its lead to 22-16 with a block from Puentes. Puentes, though, was issued a red card after the red card for excessive celebration.
Mount Olive jump started by the red card went on 5-1 run to cut the deficit to 23-22 and prompted a Belmont Abbey timeout. The Trojans following the timeout, though, committed a service error and then an attack error to end the match.
Belmont Abbey with this victory is now the first team to repeat as ConfCarolinas Tournament champions and will receive the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.
The Crusaders are projected to be either the No. 6 seed or No. 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament, according to the latest Off the Block bracketology.