Aug. 25, 2007

Box Score

BATON ROUGE, La. - Saint Louis pushed #23 LSU to the limit, taking them to five games before falling 26-30, 30-21, 27-30, 30-22, 7-15 in the championship match of the Mizuno Tiger Classic in Baton Rouge, La.

"What a great match. I couldn't be more proud of our team," SLU head coach Anne Kordes said. "I think it has a lot to do with how well our staff prepared our team during the preseason."

Saint Louis (2-1) held its own in the opening game against LSU (3-0). The Bills scored the first two points but four straight hitting errors allowed the Tigers to take the lead, one they never relinquished.

The Billikens rallied in dominating fashion in game two to even things up at one game apiece. LSU succumbed to attacking errors as their hitting percentage dropped from .326 in game one to .029 in game two. While SLU stepped up its offense with a .278 hitting percentage.

The Tigers had to eke out a 30-27 win in game three even though SLU hit at a negative percentage. SLU then forced game five after putting together their best offensive game of the match with a .311 hitting percentage. However, Kyna Washington with four kills keyed LSU to a .533 hitting percentage in game five for the match win.

For the third-straight match, Bridget Fonke (St. Louis, Mo. / St. Joseph's) was SLU's kill leader with a career high 25. Whitney Roth (Louisville, Ky. / Assumption) and Sammi McCloud (Columbia, Ill. / Columbia) each recorded a double-double with Roth tallying 58 assists and career-high tying 15 digs while McCloud turned in 20 kills and 15 digs.

"Bridget Fonke absolutely went off tonight," Kordes added. "Whitney Roth set one of the best games of her career and Whitney Behrens was steady the entire match, keeping us in it. Our middle blockers also played great tonight containing their middles, some of the best in the country."

The Billikens return to action with a 4:30 p.m. match against Western Illinois on Fri., Aug. 31 in the Radisson Hotel Invitational opener in Peoria, Ill.