SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – The second ranked University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team clinched the Great Lakes Valley Conference regular season championship with a straight sets win at Drury on Friday evening at the O'Reilly Family Events Center in Springfield, Mo.
The Tritons improve to 27-0, 12-0 GLVC while the Panthers drop to 6-21, 3-9 GLVC.
UMSL led 14-10 midway through the opening frame but Drury countered with a 7-1 run to grab a 17-15 advantage after a service ace from Kaitlin Dean. The Tritons answered with five straight to regain the lead at 20-17 on a kill by
Mya Elliott.
The Panthers wouldn't go away battling back to even things at 20 after a kill from Emily Strauss. UMSL got kills from Elliott and
Delaney Humm and an ace from
Lexie Rang to grab a 23-21 advantage. The two sides exchanged points as the Tritons reached set point first at 24-22 with a kill from
Hannah Copeland. Drury fought off the first set point after a kill by Kayli Duncan but not a second as
Hailey Flowers ended the frame with a kill.
UMSL led by as many as six in the middle stanza at 18-12 after an attack error by Strauss but the Panthers countered with four straight points to pull within two after Duncan blocked Humm. The Tritons closed out the stanza scoring seven of the final nine points to take it 25-18 and a commanding 2-0 lead in the contest.
UMSL hit .273 in the frame with 16 kills against seven errors in 33 swings while Drury was held to a negative .029 hitting percentage.
The Tritons led by as many as 10 in the final set but the Panthers made a late run closing to within five before UMSL scored the final five points of the match to complete the sweep.
The Tritons finished the match hitting .273 with 46 kills against 16 errors in 110 chances. Rang led the way with 13 kills and 13 digs while Humm added 11 and Flowers finished with nine.
Caitlin Bishop had 34 assists,
Trysta Foster served a pair of aces, Elliott added five blocks.
Drury hit .089 for the contest with 31 kills against 21 errors in 112 swings. Duncan and Sanoma Hunter had eight kills apiece while Dean finished with seven. Tadlock had two aces, Lauren Tyler finished with 26 assists and Lexi Basler had a match-high 21 digs.
UMSL plays its final match of the regular season at Southwest Baptist on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
