SEATTLE – The seventh seeded University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team upset second seeded Barry 3-1 on Thursday evening at the Royal Brougham Pavilion in Seattle, Wash. The Tritons (25-6) advance to the Final Four and will take on third seeded West Texas A&M at 6 p.m. (CST) on Friday evening.
UMSL jumped out to an early six-point lead after a kill from
Hannah Copeland but Barry (28-5) countered with a 6-2 run of its own to cut the Triton lead to 13-11 after a kill from Diana Akopova. Akopova, the AVCA National Player of the Year, had three kills in that run.
UMSL answered the Buccaneers run scoring six of the next seven points to build its largest lead of the set at 19-12 after
Mya Elliott blocked Tyanna Butler. Barry wouldn't get closer than five points the rest of the stanza as the Tritons took the opener 25-18. UMSL hit .324 in the frame while holding the Bucs to a .167 attack percentage.
Barry raced out to a 10-4 lead to start the second stanza but the Tritons rallied to get within 15-14 after a kill from
Charlotte Richards. The Buccaneers stretched the lead back to four at 18-14 after another kill from Akopova. UMSL continued to battle getting to within 23-22 after an error from Akopova but was unable to take the lead as Barry scored the final two points of the set to win 25-22 and even the match at a set apiece.
The swing set saw 10 ties and one lead change. The Bucs led 23-19 after Djuly Schmorantz blocked Elliott and had the momentum. The Tritons ran off the next four points getting a kill from Elliott, an ace from
Kylie Adams and back-to-back kills from Richards to even the set at 23. Barry had three different chances to close out the set including at 26-25 but
Lexie Rang scored to tie it at 26.
Hailey Flowers gave UMSL a 27-26 lead with a kill and then teamed up with Elliott to block Akopova to give the Tritons the 28-26 victory.
UMSL led 15-10 midway through the fourth frame but the Bucs wouldn't go quietly scoring four straight points to cut the Triton lead to 15-14. The Tritons continued to hold a one-point lead until Barry tied it at 20 with a kill from Akopova. Despite being tied, UMSL never allowed the Bucs to regain the lead as it scored five of the final seven points of the set to win it 25-22. Rang had two of those kills while Flowers, Richards and Copeland had one each.
The Tritons finished the contest with 65 kills against 23 errors in 167 swings for a hitting percentage of .251. Richards led UMSL with 24 kills in the contest while Rang added 17 and Flowers and Copeland finished with nine and eight kills respectively.
Caitlin Bishop handed out 54 assists, Elliott had two blocks and Adams had 21 digs and three aces.
Barry hit .235 for the match with 57 kills against 19 errors in 162 chances. Akopova had a match-high 37 kills in 86 swings. Jeyhien Thomas had eight kills in the contest. Marjia Borcic finished with 43 assists and 21 digs while Thomas finished with seven blocks.
West Texas A&M (31-4) defeated Wingate (32-3), seeded sixth, in five sets in the first quarterfinal on Thursday afternoon. The Lady Buffs are ranked ninth in the country and have won 24 straight contests.
