Sept. 29, 2000

Box Score

St. Louis - South Florida used 24 kills from Michelle Collier and 20 kills by Rachelle Paul to post a 3-1 victory over Saint Louis in the Conference USA home opener for the Billikens. Game scores were 15-7, 12-15, 15-10, 15-5. South Florida improves to 10-4, 3-1 in C-USA while the Billikens dip to 6-8, 1-3 in the league.

With the score tied at 4-4 in game one, USF rattled off seven-straight points on Kelly Mathiasmeier's service to pull out to an 11-4 lead. Saint Louis closed to 11-7, but the Bulls closed out the game with four points and ended the first game on Mathiasmeier's kill. The Billikens jumped out to a 5-1 in game two, but South Florida rallied to tie the game at 5-5. Saint Louis answered with four points, but USF responded by closing to 9-8. SLU edged out to another 12-8 lead only to see USF tie the game at 12. However, Colleen Hunter notched two kills and tied the match. The Bills hit a match-high .261 in game two. Game three saw SLU grab a 4-1 lead, but South Florida scored 11-consecutive points as and closed out the game at 15-10. South Florida scored six in a row to open game four and did not look back in a 15-5 win as Collier ended the match with her 24th kill.

Colleen Hunter led the Billikens with 20 kills and tied her career-high with 63 swings. Ember Knobeloch added 11 kills. Beth Martin led SLU with 14 digs and Jessica Moss and Dani Apted both had 12 digs. Collier and Paul both posted double-doubles as Collier added 17 digs and Paul tallied 14 digs. All six starters for the Bulls reached double figures in digs. Setter Melanie Mueller handed out 66 assists and had 10 digs.

South Florida hit .235 for the match while the Billikens could only manage an .086. USF held an 84-75 margin in digs.