Oct. 17, 2010

Box Score

St. Louis - Alyssa Deno hit .417 as the Saint Louis volleyball team swept Fordham at Chaifetz Pavilion Sunday afternoon. Set scores were 25-18, 25-15, 25-18. The victory is the fourth straight for the Billikens who improve to 11-9 overall, 4-2 in the Atlantic 10 Conference. Fordham falls to 12-14, 3-5 in the league.

"Great match and win to complete a successful weekend for us," Billiken head coach Anne Kordes said. "Our serving and passing was strong and helped us to the win. Ashley Gaillot did a tremendous job and served nine straight points in set two, which was huge for our confidence. It is nice to win at home and especially to take three straight. This sets us up for an important road swing this week."

The Billikens broke a 3-3 tie in set one by scoring five straight. A Fordham service aces began the run, and Megan Boken's kill handed SLU an 8-3 lead to force a Rams timeout. Fordham finally scored a point, but SLU tacked on another three straight points to take control at 11-4. The Rams chipped away at their deficit and eventually closed to 14-11, but an Andrea Beaty kill and a Fordham error rebuilt the SLU lead to 16-11. The Billikens held a 22-18 lead and scored the last three points to take the set 25-18.

Set two unfolded much like the opening set as the Billikens roared out to an early lead. Down 3-1, Boken had a kill to ignite a 10-0 outburst. After another Boken termination, Fordham committed a hitting error. SLU tallied two straight blocks, and another miscue by the Rams pushed the Billiken lead to 7-3. Gaillot dished out two straight aces, and Boken and Marcum teamed up for their third block of the sequence. Gaillot served yet another ace as the Billiken advantage grew to 11-3. SLU's lead stood at 14-6 and reached double digits following kills by Deno and Hannah Kvitle. Boken's kill ended the set at 25-15. The Billiken defense held Fordham to a -.107 hitting percentage.

Neither team led by more than two points in set three and SLU led 11-10 before unleashing a 5-1 run. Deno had a kill, and another Boken-Marcum combination block handed the Billikens a 13-10 lead. After a Fordham point, Boken and Marcum had consecutive kills. Boken's ace pushed the SLU margin to 16-11. The Billikens led 19-15 and took control by scoring four of the next five points. Deno's final kill ended the match 25-18. SLU hit .379 in the final set.

Deno had 11 kills, just one error on 24 swings en route to her .417 mark. Boken had eight kills, a team-high 12 digs and tied her career best with six blocks. Hannah Kvitle had 29 assists, seven digs and five kills. The Billikens finished with a .263 hitting mark and held Fordham to a .065 percentage.