Oct. 26, 2002

Final Stats

St. Louis - The Saint Louis University volleyball team rallied for a 3-1 victory over DePaul in Conference USA action on Saturday at Bauman-Eberhardt Center. Game scores were 16-30, 30-24, 30-27, 30-25. During the match, senior Colleen Hunter tallied the 500th block of her career to become the first player in C-USA history to amass 1,500 kills, 1,000 digs and 500 blocks.

The Blue Demons dominated game one from the outset and cruised to a 30-16 win. The Billikens tallied the first point of the game but DePaul rattled off 10 straight points to seize control. The Demons stretched the advantage to 14-3 before the Billikens responded. SLU closed the gap to seven points on two occasions, but DePaul setter Amie West had a kill to end the game. DePaul hit .400 in the game with 16 kills, while the Billikens had 11 kills but 10 errors for a .029 hitting percentage.

Game two was close before the Billikens put together a run to tie the match. The score was tied 8-8 before the Bills pushed out to a 12-9 lead. The Billikens stretched the advantage to 15-10 but the Blue Demons tallied five straight points to tie the game at 15-15. The score was still knotted at 20-20, before a Colleen Hunter and Ashley Hunter teammed for a block to make it 27-21 and a DePaul blocking error made it 28-21. DePaul had three kills and one error to give the Billikens a 29-24 margin. Brooke Minniear hit a ball down the line for a 30-24 SLU win.The Billikens offense picked up to a .314 hitting percentage while DePaul cooled off to .189. Minniear had five kills on 10 swings in the game for the Bills.

The Billikens had to stave off a big DePaul rally to gain a 2-1 lead in game three. The Bills tallied the first five points of the game, but DePaul answered with four straight to make it 5-4. SLU responded with the next four points for a 9-4 margin and edged out to a big 18-7 lead. The Blue Demons scored seven of the next nine points to get back into the game at 20-14. Two SLU hitting errors allowed DePaul to cut the lead to 22-18. The teams traded points until 25-21. DePaul commited two service errors around a kill to put SLU ahead at 27-22. Colleen Hunter smashed a ball down the middle of the DePaul defense to end the comeback for a 30-27 Billiken win. Ember Knobeloch was key for the Bills with five kills on seven attempts in the game.

Game four was close throughout before the Billikens finally prevailed. SLU held the lead for the entire game and led 17-13 before the final flurry. Marks and Kate Engel had two straight kills as DePaul pulled to 22-20. Minniear and Colleen Hunter made it 26-22 for the Billikens. The teams traded kills before a SLU service error and DePaul ace made the score 27-25. The Blue Demons were called for being in the net to push the Bills to a three-point lead. Colleen Hunter followed with a kill to make the score 29-25. Colleen Hunter and Minniear combined for a block to end the match 30-25. Colleen Hunter was a force for the Bills in the final game with six kills on nine swings in the game, while Minniear led with seven kills. The Blue Demons hit a strong .295 in the final game, but the Billikens topped that with a .400 hitting percentage.

Colleen Hunter had 19 kills while adding eight digs and seven blocks. Minniear had a double-double with 16 kills and 14 digs and hit .333. Knobeloch had 11 kills on just 22 swings and hit .409, while Ashley Hunter had nine kills on 18 attempts for a .389 hitting percentage. Beth Middendorf handed out 48 assists, and Jessica Kmitta tied a career high with 16 digs. For DePaul, Marks had a match-high 21 kills and hit .385, while Engel chipped in 19 kills, 14 digs and hit .300. The win marked the first time all season the Billikens had won a match after losing game one. The Bills had been 0-7 when dropping the first game of a match before rallying for the win over DePaul.

The Billikens win their second straight and improve to 16-8 overall, 6-2 C-USA. The Blue Demons dip to 5-20 overall, 1-7 in C-USA.