Sept. 13, 2002

Final Stats

DeKalb, Ill. - The Saint Louis University volleyball team ended Mississippi State's six-match winning streak with a 3-1 victory in the opening match of the Northern Illinois Tournament in DeKalb, Ill. Game scores were 30-26, 16-30, 30-19, 30-23.

The Billikens began the match quickly with four straight points to open. But the Bulldogs answered with five straight to take the lead. Neither team led by more than two points and the game stayed close down the stretch. The game was tied 13 times in the game, including at 19-19. The Bills scored two straight to take the lead at 21-19 and never relinquished the advantage. MSU had three errors around a Brooke Minniear kill as SLU edged out to a 25-22 lead. The Bulldogs cut the margin to 25-24 with two straight kills. Colleen Hunter ended the run with a kill. The teams traded points as the game reached 28-26 SLU. Hunter and Kayla Kmitta teamed for a block, and a Hunter kill ended the game at 30-26. The Bulldogs had more four kills than the Billikens, but had seven more hitting errors. Minniear led the Bills with six kills while Hunter added five kills on nine attempts.

In game two, the Bulldogs rattled off seven straight points for an 8-1 lead and rolled to a 14-point win. The Billikens struggled with their passing and MSU took advantage. Mississippi State hit .444 in the game with 15 kills versus just three errors. The Bills managed 11 kills but had nine errors and hit .067 in the game.

The Billiken passing game settled down in game three and SLU turned the tables on the Bulldogs 30-19. The Bills led 3-2 but outscored MSU 5-1 to grab an 8-3 advantage. MSU answered with a quick 3-1 run and closed to 9-6. Saint Louis answered with three consecutive points and eventually took a 14-8 lead. Minniear led the Billikens with three kills in a six-point streak for a 22-8 lead. MSU slowly cut into the lead and closed to 24-15. But Alyson Merchant had two straight kills to stem the MSU momentum. Hunter had another kill and Jessica Kmitta followed with an ace. After an MSU point, Hunter closed out the game with a kill. The Billikens hit a match-high .385 with 20 kills and only five errors.

In game four, the Billikens tallied the first three points of the game and never trailed in closing out the match. After the early SLU advantage, the margin never grew to more than four points. The Bills led 13-10 before making the decisive run. A Megan Sorich ace began the run and MSU followed with an error on their next attempt. Hunter had two straight kills and Minniear followed with two in a row for an 18-10 margin. MSU finally ended the run, but Minniear had another kill and Ember Knobeloch notched a solo block to make it 20-11. After a Bulldog kill, Knobeloch took over with two consecutive kills and forced another bad attempt by MSU. The Bulldogs rallied with four straight points to cut the deficit to 23-16. But Knobeloch added another kill to end the MSU rally. The teams traded points until 27-22. Hunter notched another kill and the Bulldogs hit another ball wide. MSU tallied one more point, but Minniear ended the match with a kill down the line.

Hunter finished with a match-high 21 kills while Minniear had a double-double with 19 kills and a match-high 17 digs and hit .366 for the match. Jessica Kmitta fell one short of tying her career high with 15 digs. Beth Middendorf passed out 43 assists and completed a double-double with 11 digs. Julie Malm tied her career high with nine digs. Misty Hubenthal led Mississippi State with 19 kills and 14 digs. The Bulldogs edged SLU in blocking 9.0 to 7.0 and had one more dig, but the Bills had four more kills and out hit MSU .239 to .174.

Saint Louis improves to 5-3 on the season, while Mississippi State falls to 6-3. The Billikens play Wisconsin-Green Bay at noon on Saturday and close out the tournament against host Northern Illinois at 7 p.m.