Nov. 13, 2009

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ST. LOUIS - The No. 20 Saint Louis Billikens recorded a .304 hitting percentage, including a .500 clip with no errors in the opening set, while holding Rhode Island to a -.011 mark in a 25-7, 25-12, 25-16 sweep in Atlantic 10 Conference match. Megan Boken's double-double of 10 kills and 14 digs led the Billikens.

The Billikens scored the first eight points of the match and 12 of the first 13 in rolling to a commanding lead in set one. Bridget Fonke ace kept the Billikens going and forced a Rams' timeout. Boken's kill pushed the score up to 8-0. Kayla Wilson finally got URI on the board, but another Deno kill sparked a 4-0 SLU run. At 12-2, the Billikens stretched the advantage to 15-2 and cruised to a 25-7 win. The Billikens had 12 kills on 24 swings and did not commit an error, while the Rams hit -.030.

The Rams led set two 2-1, but the Billikens scored seven unanswered points to bolt to an 8-2 lead. Casey Chernin started the run with a kill, and Boken converted down the line. After a Sammi McCloud kill, URI committed a ball handling error. Two more SLU kills pushed the margin to six. The Rams chipped away at the lead and closed to 9-6, but the Billikens answered with four consecutive points. Fonke and Deno had back-to-back kills, and URI hurt itself with two errors to boost the Billiken advantage to 13-6. The Rams were down 16-11 before the Billikens closed the set by scoring nine of the last 10 points. SLU hit just under .300 in the set but again held the Rams to a negative hitting percentage at -.077.

With set three tied at 2-2, the Billikens scored five in a row to take the early advantage. After a URI service error, McCloud notched a kill and she teamed with Boken on a block. Whitney Behrens served an ace, and a Rams' hitting error gave the Billikens a 7-2 edge. URI cut the gap to 9-4, but the Billikens scored four straight points to jump out to a 13-4 lead. After URI recorded a kill, the SLU advantage reached double digits at 16-5. The Rams never got closer than eight points the rest of the way as the Billikens completed the sweep 25-16.

Deno had eight kills on 14 swings for a .571 hitting percentage, and Fonke recorded six kills and hit at a .545 rate while adding 11 digs. Whitney Roth led all players with 29 assists. The Billikens win their eighth straight match and improve to 21-6 overall, 13-1 in the A-10. The Rams fall to 10-17, 3-11 in conference.