Nov. 10, 2007

Box Score

PITTSBURGH - Sammi McCloud and Bridget Fonke combined for 41 kills as the Saint Louis volleyball team completed the regular season with a 30-20, 30-26, 29-31, 30-26 victory at Atlantic 10 rival Duquesne on Saturday evening in Pittsburgh. The Billikens (22-6, 10-3 A-10) enter next week's A-10 Championship as the No. 3 seed.

The Bills took control from the start of game one to roll to a 30-20 win in the opener. They capitalized on five Dukes hitting errors and two kills apiece from Sally Warning and Sutton Lasater midway through the game to push their lead out to 11 points at 20-9. Duquesne (10-18, 2-11 A-10) attempted to cut into the SLU lead but got no closer than eight points as SLU hit at a .515 clip to the Dukes' .053.

Game two was quite a contrast as Duquesne had the upper hand for the majority of the game until Saint Louis took advantage of a few Dukes' hitting errors to knot the score at 20-20. Duquesne maintained its lead until the Bills against tied things up at 23-23 on kills from Fonke and McCloud. A Lasater kill put SLU up for good as it cruised to a four-point win.

Fonke's three consecutive kills helped Saint Louis to a 4-1 edge early in game three. However, the two teams went on to trade the lead 10 times and tie the score on 20 occasions as neither team led by more than three points. Duquesne appeared in command late in the game as it went up by two at 27-25 on a SLU hitting error. But the Billikens never backed down evening the score at 27-27, 28-28 and 29-29 before a Dukes' ace and a SLU mistake gave the Dukes the narrow two-point win.

Saint Louis rallied for an early lead in what would eventually become the final game. The Bills maintained a two to three-point advantage until Duquesne got consecutive kills to make it 22-22. SLU then used a pair of kills from McCloud coupled with a Whitney Roth ace and kill and a few Dukes hitting errors to close out the match with a 3-1 victory.

McCloud turned in a double-double with a match-high 21 kills and a team-best 18 digs. Fonke trailed with 20 kills while Lasater added 13 and eight blocks. Roth fed her teammates 60 assists while also contributing nine digs and three service aces. Meanwhile, Whitney Behrens had 14 digs and Warning posted nine kills.

SLU will attempt to defend its A-10 title from a year ago at the 2007 A-10 Championship beginning on Friday, Nov. 16. The Billikens will take on sixth-seeded George Washington at 4 p.m. (CT) at Halton Arena in Charlotte, N.C.