Oct. 16, 2009

Box Score

CINCINNATI - No. 20 Saint Louis held off a third-set challenge from Xavier to pick up a 25-21, 25-13, 29-27 Atlantic 10 Conference victory in Cincinnati Friday evening. The Billikens (13-5, 6-0), who have won 22 straight A-10 regular-season matches, remain tied atop the league standings with Dayton (17-2, 6-0), who they face tomorrow at 6 p.m. (CT) in Dayton.

Sammi McCloud led SLU with a season-high 18 kills while hitting at a .378 rate. She also contributed six digs and two blocks. Bridget Fonke chipped in 11 kills and seven digs, while Whitney Roth dished out 34 assists to go with eight digs. Whitney Behrens recorded a career-best five service aces to go with her team-high 12 digs.

The Billikens got the opening set started on the right foot as they raced out to a 5-0 lead. Fonke kicked off the match with a solo block, which was followed by a Xavier hitting error. Then Lydia Blaha combined for a block prior to SLU's first kill of the match, which came from Fonke. The Musketeers committed another hitting error before Hillary Otte's kill halted the Saint Louis rally. Megan Boken and McCloud bookended a Michelle Matia kill with kills of their own prior to Xavier scoring consecutive points for the first time in the set on kills from Otte and Paszkiewicz for a 7-4 difference. A Roth kill halted the rally momentarily but the Musketeers scored five of the next six points to knot the score at 9-9. The teams endured seven ties, which brought the set to 15-15. SLU tallied the next two points on a Fonke kill and a Xavier hitting error but the Musketeers came right back and forged another tied at 17-17. The teams again traded points until the Bills went up 21-19 on a McCloud kill and another XU hitting error. The Musketeers got within one point on three occasions before McCloud closed the set with back-to-back kills. Otte led all players with six kills though her team was out-hit .276 to .250.

Kelly Ruth began the second set with a kill but things went downhill from there for Xavier. The Billikens scored the next six points on a service error, a McCloud-Deno block and four straight Musketeer hitting mistakes. A Shannon Voors kill ended the run but she then stepped to the service line and committed an error to give SLU another points to make it 7-2. Three more Xavier hitting errors and a McCloud kill extended the margin to 11-2. Saint Louis' lead grew as large as 10 points at 15-5 before XU trimmed it to single digits on a kill from Voors and a Billiken hitting error. However, SLU managed to push the margin back out to 10 on consecutive kills from Fonke and Deno. The Musketeers responded with three straight points on kills from Paszkiewicz and Lauren Kaminsky in addition to a Billiken hitting mistake to make it 17-10. Saint Louis answered with five consecutive points to earn its largest lead of the night at 22-10. Xavier scored three more times on an Otte kill and two SLU serving errors but the match was already too far out of reach. SLU registered a match-high .346 clip in the second set, while the Musketeers tallied 10 errors for a negative hitting percentage.

Unlike the first two sets, SLU was the team playing catch up in the third set. After the teams played to a 4-4 deadlock, Xavier went out in front on a kill from Alex Smith and two Billiken errors. The Bills came within one point of a tie at 10-9 after trading points with the Musketeers. However, XU got consecutive kills from Kaleigh Rougraff, Otte and Matia to push the lead back out to 13-9. The teams traded points for a while but Xavier managed to gradually climb out in front by six at 22-16 on back-to-back kills from Paskiewicz and Otte. Saint Louis scored the next three points on a Fonke kill, an XU hitting error and a Casey Chernin-Deno block to cut it to 22-19. Matia and Otte teamed for a block to get Xavier within two points of the set victory. But the Billikens were not about to go quietly. A kill from Deno triggered a 5-0 run that gave SLU its first lead (24-23) since the Bills led 4-3 early in the set. A Matia kill dashed SLU's first chance at match point but it immediately got a second chance after a McCloud kill made it 25-24. Xavier lucked out when SLU committed a hitting error that knotted the score at 25-25. Again SLU was the aggressor as Boken tallied a kill to hand the Bills their third shot at match point. However, Kaminsky responded with consecutive kills to give the Musketeers their first chance at set point. A McCloud kill made it 27-27 before the Musketeers registered another hitting error to give SLU a fourth opportunity to end the match. Roth and Blaha paired for a block to complete the set 29-27. McCloud collected a set-best eight kills as the Billikens won the third and final set despite being out-hit .244 to .222.