Nov. 8, 2002

Final Stats

St. Louis - The Saint Louis University volleyball swept East Carolina 3-0 in Conference USA action at Bauman-Eberhardt Center on Friday. Game scores were 30-13, 30-21, 30-26. The win keeps the Billikens in position for a first-round bye at the C-USA Tournament Nov. 22-25. The Billikens dominated game one and cruised from there for the victory.

With the Billikens holding a 3-2 lead in the first game, Saint Louis rattled off eight straight points to take command. The Billikens did not commit an error until they had tallied 26 points, while East Carolina's offense struggled. Ashley Hunter pounded down six kills on just eight attempts. As a team, the Billikens hit .394 with 15 kills, just two errors on 33 swings. The Billiken blocking was outstanding with 6.0 team blocks. ECU was forced into a -.103 hitting percentage.

The Billikens started even better in game two on Megan Sorich's service. The freshman tallied seven straight points for the Billikens. East Carolina slowly rallied and cut the margin to just 16-13. But, Colleen Hunter and Brooke Minniear led a 10-2 outburst by the Billikens and a final score of 30-21. Minniear had five kills on five swings, and Bronwen Nelson added three kills on three attempts. ECU increased it's output with 10 kills in the game, but the Billikens also upped their kill total with 18.

Game three was close most of the way, with the Pirates enjoying a small lead for most of the first third of the game. East Carolina led 8-6 before the Billikens tied the game at 9-9. ECU again inched ahead at 13-12, but Ashley Hunter and Minniear tallied two straight kills. Colleen Hunter then had two kills and teammed with Minniear for a block to push the Billikens to a 27-24 lead. After an ECU kill, Colleen Hunter again struck for a kill and two more Pirate errors ended the match at 30-26.

Ashley Hunter led the Billikens with 13 kills each. Ashley Hunter added six digs and two blocks for SLU. Minniear had nine kills and a match-high 16 digs. Ember Knobeloch had eight kills while hitting .412 with five blocks. Missy Werges contributed five kills on just eight swings and added 11 digs with four blocks. Beth Middendorf had 31 assists while Lauren Boissevain added 14 assists. The Billikens finished with 53 kills and hit .327 in the match with 10.0 team blocks.

Sarah Vick and Robin Drewes led East Carolina with six kills each. Libero Johanna Bertini paced ECU with nine digs, and Jessica Vick had 12 assists. The Pirates had 31 kills but managed just a .064 hitting percentage.

The Billikens are now 18-9 on the season, 8-3 in Conference USA. East Carolina is now 6-23 overall, 0-10 in the league.