Sept. 14, 2002

Final Stats

DeKalb, Ill. - The Saint Louis University volleyball team lost to host Northern Illinois 3-2 in the championship match of the Country Inn and Suites Invitational in DeKalb, Ill. Game scores were 22-30, 24-30, 30-24, 30-27, 7-15. During game one of the match, senior Colleen Hunter (Cor Jesu) broke the Billiken school record with her 1,758th career kill. She tops the previous record of 1,757 set by Julie Tretten from 1994-97.

In game one, the Billikens jumped out of the gate quickly. After NIU scored the first point, the Bills rattled off five straight points. However, the Huskies responded with four straight to tie the game. Hunter then broke the record with her 1,758th career kill to put the Billikens ahead 6-5. The Bills edged ahead 9-7, then scored three straight points for a 12-7 lead. The Bills led 16-12 before NIU tallied four in a row to tie the game. The game was then tied at 19-19 before SLU hurt itself with four hitting errors for a 23-19 NIU advantage. An NIU kill and ace pushed the margin to 25-19 and NIU held on for the 30-22 win. The Billikens out hit NIU 17 kills to 10, but the Huskies committed only one error and hit .391 for the game.

Game two was close in the early going and was tied 5-5. NIU held an 11-10 lead and stretched the advantage with five straight points for a 16-10 lead. A Hunter kill ended the drought, but NIU continued the run with three more points for a 19-11 lead. NIU held the lead at 25-18 before two straight Hunter kills made it 25-20. But NIU led 29-23 and the Bills staved off two game points, but a SLU service error ended the Billiken rally. The NIU hitting again proved to be the different as the Huskies hit .340 in game two while holding the Bills to a .174 mark.

Saint Louis took a 4-1 in game three but saw NIU tie the game 4-4. The Bills answered NIU's run with six straight on Hunter's service to retake a 10-4 margin. NIU's deficit stood at 11-5 but the Huskies tallied four straight to close to 11-9. The Billikens put together a 5-2 run for a 16-11 lead. The Bills held a five-point lead at 22-17 and tallied two in a row. SLU extended the advantage to 26-18 and eventually led 28-22. The teams traded points and Ember Knobeloch ended the game with a cross-court kill for the 30-24 win. The Billiken offensive attack picked up considerably and had 19 kills while hitting .375 for the game. Hunter had eight kills on 15 swings without an error for SLU.

Neither team led game four by more than two points, and the game was tied 8-8. NIU scored three straight for an 11-8 lead, but the Billikens answered with five consecutive points to grab a 13-11 lead. SLU led 15-13, but NIU tallied three in a row to seize a 16-15 advantage. The game was tied five more times until the Billikens took a 22-21 lead on a Hunter kill. The score was stalemated again four times until three straight NIU errors put SLU up 28-26. An NIU kill made it 28-27, but Missy Werges and Hunter followed with two straight kills to force a decisive game five.

In game five, NIU opened with a kill to side-out and the Billikens committed three straight hitting errors to put themselves in an early deficit. NIU led 5-0 before Hunter put the first Billiken point on the scoreboard. The Huskies lead then grew to 8-2 after two more SLU hitting errors. NIU's lead remained at six the next points at 11-5 until three straight points made it 14-5. The Bills saved two match points but NIU's Jen Vonderharr ended an outstanding match with a kill.

Hunter had 26 kills, the most by a Billiken this season, and completed a double-double with 11 digs. Minniear chipped in her own double-double with 14 kill and 11 digs while Knobeloch added 12 kills to the attack. Jen Vonderharr, the tournament MVP, had 22 kills and hit .409 for the match.

For the Billikens, Colleen Hunter and Brooke Minniear were named to the all-tournament team. The Billikens saw their two-match winning streak end and fall to 6-4, while the Huskies have won three in a row and improve to 6-3 on the season.