Nov. 21, 2009

Box Score

DAYTON, Ohio - After a sluggish start, No. 20 Saint Louis took control and staved off a late rally by Xavier to claim a 25-21, 25-15, 25-23 victory in the Atlantic 10 Conference Championship semifinals in Dayton, Ohio. The Billikens, who advance to their third A-10 Championship final in the last four seasons, improved to 23-6, while the Musketeers end their season at 20-12. The title match will air live on CBS College Sports at 3 p.m. (CT).

Megan Boken led all players with 13 kills to go with seven digs and two blocks, while Bridget Fonke added 12 kills, a match-best four solo blocks, seven digs and two aces. Whitney Roth set the Bills to a .324 hitting percentage, while registering team highs of 40 assists and eight digs. Alyssa Deon and Casey Chernin collected eight and seven kills, respectively; while Whitney Behrens contributed six digs. Sammi McCloud posted five kills, seven digs and two blocks. SLU held Xavier to a .139 hitting percentage.

Xavier came out of the gate serving tough in the first part of the opening set. SLU scored first on a Deon kill, but the point was followed by four straight Musketeer tallies, three of which were the result of SLU hitting errors. The Bills chipped away at the lead throughout the set, eventually getting back-to-back kills from Fonke and Deon to draw even at 11-11. The Musketeers scored the ensuing point before Saint Louis retied the score on a Chernin kill and seized the lead for good on a Boken kill following a Xavier overpass to make it 13-12. The Bills built a lead as large as four points en route to the set-one victory. Boken turned in a set-high tying five kills as the Bills outhit XU .351 to .294. Five Billikens recorded at least two kills apiece in the opening set.

After giving the first point to Xavier, the Billikens raced out to an 8-1 lead and took control with Fonke at the service line. A Chernin kill kicked off the rally and was followed by a Fonke ace. In the midst of four Musketeer hitting errors, Boken terminated and Fonke completed the run with another ace. A Billiken hitting error halted the run, but SLU scored seven of the next eight points to make it a 15-3 game. Again Chernin recorded a kill to start the run. Boken posted two kills and block during the spurt, while McCloud added a kill and a block. Saint Louis earned its largest lead of the set on consecutive kills from Deon and Chernin that put the Billikens on top 22-8. Xavier mounted a late 7-3 run but it was too late as SLU captured the win. The Bills hit at a .214 clip, while the Musketeers hit at a -.100 rate. Chernin and Boken each had a four kills to lead SLU.

The Billikens played catch up for almost the entire second set after Xavier scored the initial three points. The Musketeers maintained a lead of two to three points until SLU used back-to-back kills from Fonke and Boken to bring the match to a stalemate at 16-16. The teams tied six times after that. Fonke was lethal down the stretch for the Bills, recording four kills and a solo block to keep the Bills in contention for the win. One of her set-best eight kills helped the Bills break free from a 22-22 tie and a kill from Deon gave SLU its first shot at match point. A SLU service error gave Xavier new life but another Fonke kill fittingly gave Saint Louis the win. The Bills hit .378 and collected four key blocks, two from Fonke, while Xavier hit at a .189 clip.