Nov. 9, 2007

Box Score

PITTSBURGH - Saint Louis took advantage of each of its weapons to defeat Pittsburgh 30-16, 30-28, 24-30, 30-26 in non-conference volleyball action on Friday evening. Sammi McCloud led four Billikens in double-figure kills with a career-high tying 23.

The Billikens (21-6, 9-3 A-10) used a scorching .538 hitting percentage to defeat the Panthers in game one. The early portion of the game featured five ties before SLU pulled away. With the score tied at 5-5, Sally Warning and Sutton Lasater connected on consecutive kills for a two-point lead. A Pitt attack error and another Lasater kill put Saint Louis up 9-5. The Panther offense was plagued by hitting mistakes as it managed just a .031 clip in game one. Lasater led the Bills with four kills while three SLU players hit .750 or better in the opening game.

Pitt put up more of a fight in game two with the teams tying a match-high 17 times and trading the lead on six occasions. Neither team led by more than a point until the Panthers went up 8-6 on a kill and a service ace. However, the Billikens bounced back to knot the score at points nine through 14 before regaining the upper hand. A Warning kill and two Pitt miscues gave SLU its largest lead yet at 17-14. The Panthers rallied for the lead one last time at 24-23 but Bridget Fonke posted two-straight kills to put SLU back in control. After a 25-25 tie, Saint Louis pushed forward for the slim two-point victory. Fonke turned in a team-best six kills.

The Panthers took control early in game three with a five-point run on four kills and a Billiken hitting error for an 11-5 edge. Pittsburgh's lead ballooned to 10 points at 19-9 before SLU made its run. The Bills cut the margin in half on three kills from McCloud, a service ace and a Pitt hitting error. But the Panther offense, armed with a .390 hitting percentage, was too strong for SLU as the Bills never got any closer. McCloud tallied a game-high nine kills but no other SLU player had more than two in the loss.

SLU led by as many as four points early in the final game before Pitt came roaring back to even things up at 9-9. A pair of Panther kills and a Billiken hitting error gave the home team a three-point lead. Pittsburgh pushed the advantage out to six points twice before Saint Louis began to chip away at the lead. A kill by Warning and three Pitt errors made it 19-17. Following a Panther point, Sammi McCloud contributed a kill and an ace combined with a Pitt hitting error tied things up at 20-20. The game feature ties at points 20 through 24 before SLU took a lead it never relinquished on consecutive kills by Whitney Roth and McCloud.

Roth dished out 62 assists to six different hitters and Whitney Behrens added a match-high tying 13 digs. Also in double-figure kills for SLU were Lasater (16), Warning (12) and Fonke (11).

SLU wraps up the regular season with a match at A-10 foe Duquesne tomorrow at 6 p.m. (CT).