Sept. 28, 2008

Box Score

ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis' formidable hitting and blocking presence helped the Billikens improve to 2-0 in Atlantic 10 Conference play with a 25-22, 25-13, 25-17 win over George Washington on Sunday afternoon at Chaifetz Pavilion. The Billikens (10-4) collected 14 blocks in the match while out-hitting the Colonials (6-6, 1-1 A-10) .302 to .069.

Sally Warning led the SLU offense with a career high-tying 14 kills while also adding six blocks. Bridget Fonke contributed 13 kills while Sammi McCloud tied her career high with a match-best seven blocks to go with nine kills. Whitney Roth dished out 37 assists and also tallied six blocks to tie her career best, and Whitney Behrens recorded a match-best 11 digs. Leah Hill led GW with nine kills while Maggie Wright collected a team-high 10 digs.

The opening set saw the Billikens and the Colonials exchange the lead 12 times before the set was finally decided. Neither team led by more than a point until GW broke a 7-7 tie with a 4-0 run. A couple mistakes by SLU and a pair of kills from Hill fueled the run. Saint Louis chipped away at the lead and eventually taking the lead at 13-12 with their own 5-0 run courtesy of kills from Fonke and McCloud and three Colonial hitting errors. The teams traded points until the Bills scored on back-to-back kills from Warning and McCloud to go ahead for good at 18-16. GW immediately cut the deficit to one but SLU put together a 3-0 run to increase their lead to four points at 21-17 en route to the win. Fonke led all players with eight kills, while SLU led the set with five blocks, four from McCloud.

In the second set Saint Louis scored the opening point before George Washington tied things at 1-1 on a Billiken hitting error. The stalemate was as close as the Colonials would get as the SLU never trailed in the second set en route to the win. Both teams were plagued by hitting errors in the early going but SLU got kills from McCloud and Casey Chernin and an ace from Megan Boken to push the lead out to 10-4. A little later Abby Syverson brought GW to life with two kills to make it 12-8 but the Colonials could not get any closer the rest of the set. Late in the set, Saint Louis ignited a five-point run on a service error and a pair of blocks from McCloud and Roth to race out to a nine-point advantage at 21-12. The Billikens' lead ballooned to 12 points by the time the set was complete as SLU out-hit George Washington .333 to .000. Four Bills recorded kills in the set with McCloud pacing the squad with four.

George Washington scored the first two points of the final set before SLU came charging back with 5-1 run for a 5-3 lead, courtesy of two Colonial hitting errors and kills from Chernin, McCloud and Warning. GW scored four of the next six points, including two kills from Liz Moult, to knot the set at 7-7. Warning put down a kill and McCloud and Boken teamed up for a block to put SLU back in front by two at 9-7. But Leah Hill kept the Colonials in it with three kills to keep things even at 11-11. Then Warning powered Saint Louis to a 6-0 run with a pair of kills and three blocks as the Bills raced out to a 17-11 lead. George Washington's MacKenzie Knox halted the rally with a kill as her team scored the next three points to trim the margin to three at 17-14. However, Warning again fueled another 6-0 Billiken rally with three kills and two blocks as SLU took a 23-14 lead. GW scored three of the next four points but Warning left no doubt as to the winner as she ended the match with a kill. Warning had a set-high eight kills and contributed to five of Saint Louis' six blocks in the third set.

SLU travels to Cedar Falls, Iowa on Tuesday, Sept. 30, for a 7 p.m. nonconference match against Northern Iowa.