Sept. 21, 2007

Box Score

DAYTON - Saint Louis' attempt to bring the nation's longest winning streak to a halt came up just short as the Billikens dropped their Atlantic 10 Conference opener at Dayton 29-31, 30-28, 30-28, 28-30, 12-15. The Flyers improve to 14-0 while SLU (10-4) dropped consecutive matches for the first time since the beginning of the 2006 campaign.

"I am so proud of our team. Our players did a great job," SLU head coach Anne Kordes said. "Dayton had a great crowd and it was tough coming in here, but we played so hard. Sammi (McCloud) had an amazing match. She dug the ball, she hit the ball and she blocked the ball. She was really a driving force for us. Sutton (Lasater) also provided a lot of leadership for us today at key times and Whitney Roth did awesome running the offense."

Game one involved 16 ties before the Flyers eventually pulled out a 31-29 win despite being out-hit .225 to .220 by SLU. The Billikens led for the majority of the game but UD pulled it out in the end. In game two, Saint Louis didn't hit well but it was still better than UD's offensive effort. The Bills pulled out a 30-28 victory in game two to even things up at a game apiece.

Dayton hit .344 in game three but it wasn't enough to stop Saint Louis, which claimed a 30-28 victory for the second-straight game. SLU used the momentum from game two to hit .321 in game three for the victory. The Flyers ran out to a 5-0 lead in game four before SLU score seven straight points to take the lead. But Dayton fought back to take the lead and force game five with a 30-28 victory.

The Flyers came on with a vengeance in game five before SLU tied things up at 9-9. However, Dayton pulled away to keep their win streak alive with a 15-12 game and match victory.

Whitney Roth dished out 47 assists.

SLU returns to the court tomorrow when it takes on A-10 foe Xavier in Cincinnati at 6 p.m. (CT).