ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team clinched a share of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Regular Season Championship with its upset win of No. 25 Lewis on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building.
UMSL (20-5, 11-1 GLVC) shared the regular season title with Quincy who swept Drury on Saturday afternoon. The Tritons will be the second seed in the GLVC Tournament which begins next Thursday (Nov. 10) at the Eastside Centre in East Peoria, Ill.
It was UMSL's first win at home over Lewis since the 2010 season when it swept the Flyers.
The Tritons and Flyers (19-8, 8-4 GLVC) went back-and-forth in the opening set with nine ties and five lead changes. UMSL led by three early but Lewis countered with a 7-1 run to take a three-point lead of its own after a block by Megan Schlechte. The Flyers stretched their lead to 15-11 after a kill from Lauren Stenman and forced the Tritons to call a timeout.
UMSL responded after the break running off eight of the next 10 points to grab a 19-17 lead after an ace serve from
Trysta Foster. The Tritons still led 23-21 but Lewis wouldn't go quietly scoring three of the next four points to even the set at 24. UMSL retook the lead at 25-24 after a service error on Juliana Van Loo but the Flyers scored back to-back points to take a 26-25 lead and had a chance to serve out the set.
The Tritons took their final timeout and responded by scoring the final three points of the stanza to win the opener 28-26 after Bella Ray hit an attack wide of the court.
Lewis led 15-12 midway through the second set but UMSL fought back to take a 21-19 lead after an attack error by Ray. The Flyers then ran off five of the next six points to grab a 24-22 lead on a kill by Ray. The Tritons fought off one set point as Ray hit an attempt out of bounds but couldn't fight off a second as Natalie Stefanski knocked down a kill to give Lewis the 25-23 set win and even the match at a set apiece.
The Flyers jumped out to an early lead in the swing set before UMSL went on a 7-1 run to grab a 12-8 lead after an attack error by Van Loo. Lewis closed to within one on five different occasions but each time the Tritons had a response to extend their lead. UMSL led 23-19 and appeared to be in control of the set but the Flyers had other ideas running off four of the next five points to close the gap to 24-23 when Stenman and Ray blocked
Charlotte Richards. The Tritons won the set on the next swing as Richards knocked down a kill to give UMSL the 25-23 victory.
The Tritons led by six midway through the fourth frame only to see Lewis rally and cut the margin to 17-16 after an attack error by
Hannah Copeland. UMSL responded scoring five of the next six points to extend its lead to five and wouldn't let the Flyers get closer than four points the rest of the way winning the set 25-19.
The Tritons finished the contest hitting .172 with 55 kills against 23 errors in 186 chances. Richards,
Hailey Flowers and
Mya Elliott had 12 kills apiece in the contest while
Lexie Rang added 10 kills.
Caitlin Bishop dished out a match-high 45 kills, Rang added four blocks and Richards had 24 digs.
Lewis hit .169 in the contest with 59 kills against 28 errors in 183 swings. Ray and Van Loo were tied for the match-high with 13 kills apiece. Stenman handed out 42 assists, Ray added 10 blocks and Andrea Zeiser finished with 30 digs.
