Sept. 18, 2009

Box Score

ST. LOUIS - The No. 22 Saint Louis Billikens hit at a season-best .349 clip while holding SIU Edwardsville to a .000 percentage en route to sweeping the Cougars to open the Billiken Invitational at Chaifetz Pavilion on Friday evening. The Billikens posted set scores of 25-9, 25-22, 25-15 to even their record at 5-5.

The Billikens stormed out of the gate by scoring the first six points of the match, forcing a Cougar timeout. The SLU lead grew to 8-0 before SIUE got on the board. The Cougars inched back into the set at 10-5. The Billikens held a 13-6 margin before a Bridget Fonke ace ignited a 5-0 burst to push the lead to double digits. SLU scored the final five points of the set, capped by a block by Megan Boken and Lydia Blaha to close the set 25-9. The Billikens hit .409 in the opening set and held the Cougars to a -.222 attack percentage.

Fonke began set two with an ace, and Boken notched a kill on her first swing for a quick 2-0 SLU lead. The Billikens were up 4-2 and tallied three straight to build a 7-2 lead. The Cougars clawed back to 9-7, but SLU scored four of the next five points for a 13-8 lead, prompting an SIUE timeout. The Cougars answered with a 5-1 run to close to 14-13. After an SIUE service error, Sammi McCloud pounded down a cross-court kill for a 16-13 Billiken advantage. A Casey Chernin kill pushed the SLU advantage to 19-14, but the Cougars stayed close and rallied to cut the margin to one at 21-20. Boken had back-to-back kills to build a three-point SLU lead. McCloud's kill ended set two at 25-22.

The Cougars led early in set three before three unanswered points gave SLU a 5-4 lead. With the score tied 6-6, the Billikens reeled off five straight points to surge to an 11-6 advantage. Consecutive kills by Fonke built the SLU lead to 13-7. Later, the Billikens scored four points in a row for an 18-9 margin. SLU closed the third set with a 4-1 run to close out the match 25-15.

Fonke led the Billikens with match highs of nine kills and four aces, while McCloud notched eight kills and a .500 hitting percentage. Boken added eight kills, while Blaha had five kills on seven swings for a .714 hitting mark. Whitney Behrens led SLU with 10 digs, while Whitney Roth dished out a match-best 32 assists. Sydney Winslow led SIUE with seven kills and 10 digs. The Cougars dip to 0-13.

In the first match of the tournament, Kayla Varney and Allison Whitson tallied 14 kills apiece as UC Davis handed Toledo its first loss of the season 25-20, 25-21, 25-23. The Aggies hit .243 in the match while holding the Rockets to a .165 mark. UC Davis held a 10 to one margin in blocking. Amber DeWeerdt led Toledo with match highs of 17 kills and 19 digs. UC Davis improves to 8-4, while Toledo falls to 9-1.