BOLIVAR, Mo. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team got a balanced offensive attack to extend its winning streak to four with a 3-1 win at Southwest Baptist on Saturday afternoon. The Tritons improve to 12-4, 5-1 GLVC while the Bearcats drop to 10-7, 3-2 GLVC.
UMSL trailed for a majority of the opening set and were down 21-18 after a kill from Loran Pritchett. The Tritons got a kill from
Hannah Copeland to cut the deficit to two and sparked a set deciding 7-2 run to turn the three-point deficit into a two-point win. Copeland had three kills in that run while
Lexie Rang and
Hailey Flowers had one each.
UMSL led wire-to-wire in the second stanza as it raced out to an early four-point lead. SBU got as close as 13-10 but the Tritons responded with an 8-2 run to build its largest lead of the set at 21-12 on its way to a 25-17 set victory.
The Bearcats raced out to an early five-point advantage in the third frame but UMSL rallied to take a 22-16 lead after a kill from Rang. SBU rallied closing the set scoring the final nine points to win 25-22 and force a fourth set.
The Tritons led by as many as eight midway through the fourth frame. The Bearcats got to within six before UMSL closed it out scoring three of the final five points to win the 25-18.
The Tritons hit .208 in the match with 52 kills against 22 errors in 144 chances. Copeland led three players in double figures with 13 kills while Flowers added 12 and Rang finished with 11.
Caitlin Bishop had a match-high 25 assists,
Kylie Adams finished with 16 digs and
Mya Elliott added four blocks.
SBU was held to a .128 attack percentage with 40 kills against 22 errors in 141 swings. Pritchett had a match-high 16 kills, Bailey Lasater added 24 assists, Aleena Peterson had a match-high 17 digs and five aces.
UMSL is back at home this Friday (Oct. 7) hosting Drury at 6 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building.
