Sept. 19, 2009

Box Score

ST. LOUIS - For the second straight day, No. 22 Saint Louis improved its best hitting percentage of the season by posting a .429 team hitting percentage in a 25-12, 25-14, 25-18 win over Toledo on the second day of the Billiken Invitational at Chaifetz Pavilion. All seven Billikens that recorded kills hit at least .250 in the match. The Billikens move to 6-5 with the victory, while the Rockets fall to 9-2. SLU will face UC Davis at 7 p.m. in the tournament finale.

In the opening set, the Billikens out-hit Toledo .405 to .029, committing just two hitting errors. SLU gradually built momentum increased its lead throughout the set with runs of four and three points early. An Sammi McCloud sandwiched around a pair of Rocket hitting errors put the Bills up 7-3. Toledo's Kassie Kadera put down a kill to end the streak, but Saint Louis responded with a 3-0 run sparked by kills from McCloud and Bridget Fonke. The Billikens pushed out to a 12-point lead with a five-point burst midway through the set. Fonke ignited the offense with a kill and Deno followed with a kill of her own. Then Toledo recorded three straight errors to help SLU gain a 19-7 cushion. The Rockets went on to post consecutive points on a kill from Bailey Blank and a Sondra Parys ace; however, McCloud answered with a kill for the Billikens to end the set. Fonke, who got the one kill she needed to join SLU's 1,000-kill club in the opening set, led all players with five kills, while McCloud added four kills and a set-best seven digs.

Just one to two points separated the teams in the second set until Saint Louis scored five straight points to earn a 14-8 edge. The score was knotted at 7-7 before Fonke and Deno registered back-to-back kills. The Bills encountered a service error prior to the start of their run. During the run, Deno posted two kills, Fonke added consecutive aces and McCloud tallied a kill. UT's Bethany Irwin halted the rally with a kill, but SLU still managed to score in bunches the rest of the way while preventing the Rockets from posting back-to-back points. The Billikens, who hit at a .500 clip with no errors, had four players with at least three kills in the set, while Irwin led Toledo with three kills. The Rockets registered just two errors but only managed a .185 hitting percentage with seven kills.

Saint Louis' offensive efficiency continued in the third set at the Bills hit .379 to UT's .241. The Bills exploded for five of the set's first six points with single kills from Deno, Lydia Blaha and McCloud in addition to a Deno-McCloud block. Toledo trimmed the margin to three on back-to-back kills from Blank. However, SLU used a kill and block from Fonke combined with two Rocket mistakes to race out to an 11-4 lead. The Billikens pushed their lead out to as many as 10 points on two occasions but Toledo put together a furious rally near the end of the set. With SLU up 21-11, Irwin helped spark a Rocket rally. She collected two kills and a pair of block assists during a 6-2 UT run that made it 23-17. That was as close as Toledo would get as Fonke and Kassie Kadera swapped kills to make it 24-18 before a Rocket serving error ended the match. Fonke and Blank tied for set-high honors with four kills apiece.

Fonke led all players with 13 kills and three aces, while Deno chipped in 10 kills. Whitney Roth claimed the match's only double-double with 34 assists and 10 digs, while McCloud narrowly missed a double-double with nine kills and 12 digs. Blank paced Toledo with eight kills and Irwin added seven.

In the second match of the day, UC Davis defeated SIU Edwardsville 25-11, 25-22, 25-19. Allison Whitson paced the Aggies with 11 kills and Melanie Adams recorded 10, while Brianne Graunke and Sydney Winslow each had seven kills to lead SIUE.