The Belmont Abbey women's volleyball team needed just 58 minutes to sweep the visiting Limestone Saints, 3-0 this evening at the Wheeler Center to increase their winning streak to 18. The victory gives the Crusaders an overall record of 24-3 overall and 16-1 in Conference Carolinas, while Limestone drops to 11-15 overall and 9-8 in league play.

The Crusaders have one match remaning in the regular season, tomorrow night at home against Converse at 7:00 p.m. A win will clinch at least a tie for the Conference Carolinas regular season title.

Belmont Abbey controlled just about the entire match, save for the first set when Limestone opened up a 10-6 lead after the Saints claimed five-straight points. The Crusaders won the next two points to chop the lead down to 10-8, but Limestone countered by winning the next point to move ahead 11-8. That was all for the Saints, however as the Abbey reeled off the next five consecutive points to take a 13-11 lead. The Saints fought back to re-take the lead at 14-13, but that wouild be it for Limestone, as the Crusaders yielded just two more points the rest of the way. Belmont Abbey won the final four points to take a 25-16 win in the opening set.

The second set was all Crusaders, as the Abbey gained the lead after a 3-3 tie and never looked back. The cushion rose to as high as 20-12 as the Crusaders coasted to a 25-16 win.

The third set was no contest. Belmont Abbey won the first nine points of the set before an Abbey blocking error broke the string. The Crusaders led 13-2 at one point, and at its highest the lead was 21-8, and it never dropped below 11 as the Abbey claimed the easy 3-0 win.

Hannah Schellenberg led all players with 18 kills as she registered a .469 attack. She was the only player to reach double figures. She added six digs. Gabby Martinez handed out 16 assists to go along with a pair of service aces and Abby Stine finished with 12 assists and a service ace. 

Libero Ana Maria Pagan had two service aces to go along with a match-high 15 digs. Dani Fortunato also had a pair of service aces.