Aug. 29, 2009

Box Score

ST. LOUIS - In a clash between nationally ranked volleyball squads, No. 1 Penn State emerged with a 3-0 triumph, 29-27, 25-18, 25-14, over No. 20 Saint Louis in the title match of the Active Ankle Challenge at Chaifetz Arena.

The match was played before a record on-campus crowd of 6,106, easily eclipsing the previous mark of 2,152 fans who saw Saint Louis beat then-No. 3 Stanford last season.

Penn State (3-0), the two-time defending national champion, improved its NCAA-record winning streak to 67 matches. Saint Louis slipped to 2-1.

Penn State's Megan Hodge pounded 11 of her team's 18 kills in the opening set, and the Nittany Lions built a 16-10 lead. The Bills went on a 4-0 run on one of Megan Boken's seven first-set kills and three straight Penn State hitting errors. The Nittany Lions responded by scoring four of the next six points for a 20-16 advantage, but three consecutive Sammi McCloud kills sparked a run that pulled SLU even, 22-22. From there, the teams traded points until Hodge's 10th and 11th kills gave PSU a 29-27 win and a 1-0 edge.

The Nittany Lions again assembled a significant advantage in set two before the Billikens fought back. Trailing 8-3, SLU put together a 4-1 spurt on two Whitney Roth kills, a Boken service ace and a Penn State attack error to slice the deficit to 9-7. The Lions tallied the next three points, including two Darcy Dorton kills, for a 12-7 cushion. However, the Bills registered five of the next seven points, including two kills apiece by Bridget Fonke, to draw to within two at 14-12. Saint Louis trailed by two points twice more, the second time 18-16, before Penn State's 7-2 outburst gave the Nittany Lions a 25-18 victory and a 2-0 advantage.

Penn State took command early in the third set and never looked back, winning 25-14. The Bills mounted a modest challenge, using a kill and a service ace from Roth, a Whitney Behrens ace and a Fonke kill in a 4-1 run that sliced Penn State's lead to 12-9. But the Lions went on a 5-0 spurt of their own to regain control.

Hodge amassed a match-high 17 kills and made just three errors on 33 swings, hitting .424 to pace PSU to a .322 team mark. Dorton finished with 11 kills. Alyssa D'Errico had a match-high 14 digs and was joined in double figures by Hodge and Alisha Glass, who collected 12 apiece.

Boken's 10 kills led Saint Louis, who also received eight kills from Deno and seven from McCloud. Roth had a team-high nine digs, and Fonke added eight.

Glass was selected the tournament's Most Valuable Player and was joined on the All-Tournament team by Hodge, Brown and D'Errico. McCloud and Roth represented the Billikens on the All-Tournament squad.

In the first match of the evening session, Miami (Ohio) (1-2) rallied to take a 3-2 decision over Alabama (0-3), 24-26, 25-16, 19-25, 25-19, 15-10. Miami's Maria Leahy tallied match highs of 16 kills and 17 digs, while Hallie Hanks collected 15 kills and Michele Metzler added 12. Lisa Treadway (13), Jenn Caylor (12) and Colleen Loftus (10) registered double-digit dig totals.

The Crimson Tide got 10 kills and a match-high four service aces from Alyssa Meuth. Brooks Webster notched 15 digs and was joined in double figures by Kayla Fitterer (13), Jennifer Weber (11) and Kayla Schmidt (10). Calli Johnson and Sarah Machen shared match-high honors with seven blocks apiece as the Tide out-blocked the RedHawks 15-4.