Oct. 17, 2009

Box Score

DAYTON, Ohio - No. 20 Saint Louis fell to Dayton 18-25, 26-24, 25-19, 29-31, 15-17 in its first five-set match of the season at the Frericks Center in Dayton, Ohio, Saturday evening. The Billikens (13-6, 6-1) slipped to second in the Atlantic 10 Conference standings with the defeat, while the Flyers (18-2, 7-0) took over the top spot.

Bridget Fonke turned in a season-high 27 kills for the Bills while also amassing a .338 hitting percentage, nine digs and two blocks. Sammi McCloud contributed a season-high 20 kills to go with her career-high tying 21 digs and .333 hitting percentage. Whitney Roth led all players with a career-best 26 digs to go with her season-high 66 assists, three kills and one block. Megan Boken added a season-high 16 digs in addition to her 12 kills. Meanwhile Whitney Behrens and Casey Chernin registered eight kills with two digs and a pair of blocks.

The Billikens held an early lead in the initial set before the Flyers forged four ties to bring the score to 9-9. Back-to-back SLU hitting errors gave UD an 11-9 edge. A McCloud kill trimmed the margin to one at 11-10, but that was as close as the Bills would get the rest of the way. The Bills scored three consecutive points late in the set on a pair of McCloud kills and McCloud-Roth block but it was not enough as the Flyers closed the set with consecutive points on a Saint Louis hitting error and a Rachel Krabacher kills. McCloud led all players with six kills but the Billikens were out-hit .243 to .154 as it dropped the first set 25-18.

Set two remained close until UD earned a decisive lead with six straight points to make it 14-9. A Flyer serving error and back-to-back McCloud kills cut the margin to 14-12 as the Billikens stayed within two points until a Fonke kill and a Fonke-Alyssa Deno block helped SLU tied things up at 17-17. The teams endured five ties before Saint Louis scored consecutive points on a UD hitting error followed by a Fonke kill to make it 24-22. Back-to-back Cowdrey kills knotted the set at 24-24 before SLU scored the next two points to win its first set of the match.

Dayton did not commit any hitting errors in set three but the Billikens managed to double its up on kills 22-11 to claim the set-three win. SLU also hit at a .538 clip in the set to the Flyers' .355. The teams were tied 3-3 before Saint Louis jumped out to a five-point lead on two kills from Boken, one apiece from McCloud and Roth and a service ace by Behrens. The Flyers managed to get as close as two points at 15-13 before the Bills responded with kills from Fonke and McCloud to push the lead back out to four points at 17-13. SLU increased its lead to six points before the close of the set.

The Flyers never led in the fourth set until they rallied from a five-point deficit to claim a 21-20 edge. Dayton used a Cowdrey kills, two Billiken errors, two service aces from Kacie Hausfeld and a Tiffany Gaerke kill to earn the lead. A Deno-Chernin block and a UD hitting error allowed SLU to get back into the set at 23-23. The teams endured six tied before Dayton escaped with a two-point victory, due to consecutive Billiken hitting errors, to knot the match at two sets apiece.

Saint Louis appeared in command of the fifth set after scoring the first three points on kills from Fonke and Deno in addition to a service aces from McCloud. The Flyers managed to tie the score four times before the Bills answered with three consecutive points on kills from Boken and Fonke sandwiched around a UD hitting error to make it 11-8. The teams swapped points until it was 14-11 with SLU getting its first opportunity at set point. However, Dayton scored the next four points to regain a 15-14 edge. Boken's kill knotted the score at 15-15, but a Billiken hitting error and a service ace from Krabacher gave the Flyers the victory.