Sept. 25, 2009

Box Score

KINGSTON, R.I. - No. 23 Saint Louis hit at an astounding .722 rate in the opening set and rolled on from there, claiming a 25-9, 25-17, 25-19 victory over Rhode Island in its Atlantic 10 Conference opener on Friday evening in Kingston, R.I. The Billikens (8-5, 0-1 A-10) completed the match with their best hitting percentage of the season (.476). The Rams fell to 5-7, 0-1 A-10 with the loss.

Sammi McCloud paced the SLU offense with 16 kills while hitting at a .625 clip. Bridget Fonke added 12 kills and seven digs, and Megan Boken recorded nine kills and six digs. Whitney Behrens bolstered the Bills' back row with a match-high 11 digs, while Whitney Roth dished out 38 assists and tallied five digs. Caitlyn Welsh led the Rams with nine kills.

An Lydia Blaha and Fonke each notched kills and Rhode Island enduring a hitting error. The Billikens got points from five different players during a 10-2 run, which included nine straight points, to put the set out of reach at 21-7. Welsh and Lauren McIntosh posted kills late in the set but it was not enough as Saint Louis out-hit the Rams .722 to .091. McCloud led all players with five kills, while Behrens recorded seven of her digs during the opening stanza.

The two teams alternated points early in set two, and URI led by as many as two points before SLU charged ahead. The Bills broke an 11-11 deadlock with seven consecutive points. The run began with a hitting error by Welsh followed by back-to-back kills from Deno and McCloud. Rhode Island committed errors on three of the next four points and Deno and McCloud teamed for a block before a Saint Louis service error ended the streak with the Bills up 18-12. Errors followed for both teams prior to Boken and McCloud bookending a Ram hitting error for a 22-13 lead. Kayla Wilson contributed an ace and a kill but the set was already out of reach with the Billikens against out-hitting the Rams by more than .250 points.

SLU led by two points twice in the early stages of the third set before the Rams came charging back. The Bills were leading 8-6 when Rhode Island used a Billiken service error and an ace from the Rams' Welsh to forge an 8-8 stalemate. URI then went up by one when Saint Louis hit one into the net. Three of the next four points went to the Billikens on two Fonke kills and one from Deno. However, the Rams scored the next three points on a Billiken error, a solo block from Newberg and an ace from Candice Kolkka to make it 13-11. Saint Louis was not about to let the set go as it rallied for five straight points on two Rams' errors, kills from Boken and McCloud and a solo block from McCloud to regain the 16-13 edge. A Newberg kill sliced the margin to two before Boken collected a solo block and a kill to extend the lead to four at 18-14. Kills from Roth, McCloud and Boken followed a SLU serving error allowing the Bills to push ahead 21-15. Rhode Island made one last charge but did not have enough to overtake the Bills as they hit better than the Rams for the third straight set.