Oct. 2, 2009

Box Score

ST. LOUIS - No. 21 Saint Louis emerged with a 25-14, 25-12, 25-15 victory over Duquesne in a battle of Atlantic 10 Conference unbeatens on Friday evening at Chaifetz Pavilion. The Billikens, who extended their win and sweep streak to six matches, improved to 10-5, 3-0 A-10, while the Dukes fell to 11-6, 2-1 A-10.

Sammi McCloud led all players with eight kills, while Lydia Blaha and Megan Boken each notched six. Whitney Roth dished out a match-high 27 assists and Whitney Behrens turned in 12 digs. Blaha also collected a season-high tying five blocks.

The Billikens inched ahead with a three-point run early in the opening set. SLU was up 5-4 when McCloud struck for a kill and the Dukes committed a pair of errors to give the Bills the 8-4 edge. Saint Louis continued to extend its lead throughout the set, using a 6-2 run to claim a 19-11 lead. A Boken kill ignited the rally and was followed by a pair of Duquesne hitting errors. Liz Homan scored on a pair of kills for the Dukes, but McCloud contributed to a pair of blocks and another DU hitting miscue followed to complete the spurt. Then the Billikens scored four straight on two kills from Blaha, one from McCloud and another attacking error by the Dukes. Duquesne got two points near the end of the set off two SLU mistakes but Alyssa Deno recorded a kill and teamed with Blaha for a block to conclude the set. SLU hit .294, while the Dukes managed just five kills to go with seven errors to hit at a negative clip. McCloud and Boken each notched four kills to lead set one.

Blaha scored on a kill to begin the second frame and errors continued to plague the Dukes as SLU went up 2-0 before Nicole Wright got DU on the board with a kill. However, Saint Louis then posted five straight points to race out to a 7-1 lead. A Blaha-Boken kill started the run and an ace from Behrens followed before Duquesne committed back-to-back-to-back hitting errors. DU's Ashley Buse and McCloud traded kills before the teams each endured a pair of hitting errors to make it 10-4. SLU broke out of its minor slump with another 5-0 spurt. Boken and McCloud tallied on consecutive kills. Then Duquesne registered another hitting mistake prior to Bridget Fonke's back-to-back kills that made it 15-4. The Dukes allowed Saint Louis to score consecutive points just three more times in the set. However, they were unable to score in bunches as the Bills' largest lead, 13 points, came at the end of the set. Again the Dukes hit at a negative percentage while SLU, which was led by Fonke's four kills, collected 13 kills with just five errors.

Another big Billiken run at the start of the set helped Saint Louis take the third set. SLU broke free from a 3-3 deadlock with a 9-1 rally. McCloud, Roth and Fonke each recorded a block and a kill during the run, while Deno and Boken each posted service aces. The teams traded serving errors before the Bills charged on with four consecutive points, including a Casey Chernin kill and a Blaha-Deno block, for the 17-6 advantage. Sara Scheirman hammered a kill home for Duquesne but SLU responded with another 4-0 flurry that made it 21-7. The Dukes attempted to catch up with a late run of their own. Buse kicked off the rally with a kill, Wright served up four aces and Scheirman also tallied during the rally. But back-to-back kills from Blaha and Deno halted any threat as the Bills went on to capture the set and the match. SLU hit .269, while DU notched just six kills against 12 errors in the final set.