ST. LOUIS – The top seeded and fourth ranked University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team got a strong performance from its defense in its 3-1 win over fifth seeded and No. 24 ranked Grand Valley State on Friday evening to advance to Saturday's Midwest Region Final at the Mark Twain Building.

The Tritons improve to 32-1 while the Lakers end their season with a record of 27-5.

UMSL never trailed in the opening frame as it raced out to a 6-1 lead and led by as many as 10 on its way to a 25-15 set win. The Tritons hit .286 with 15 kills in the stanza and were led by Lexie Rang with four kills while Hannah Copeland and Mya Elliott had three kills apiece.

The Tritons led by as many as four in the second set but Grand Valley's defense got them back into it recording five blocks in the frame led by Jordyn Gates and Brianna Stawski with three apiece while Sarah Wight added two blocks.

Grand Valley turned that four-point deficit into a two-point lead at 21-19 after an attack error from Delaney Humm. UMSL responded scoring four of the next six points to even the stanza at 23 after a kill from Hailey Flowers and had a chance to take the lead but Flowers missed her serve into the net setting up set point for the Lakers. GVSU took advantage of the miscue getting a kill from Wight to win the set 25-23 to even the match at a set apiece.

The Tritons trailed by three points in the swing set and then its defense got going extending multiple rallies as the back line kept several balls alive which allowed the offense to get rolling. After a slow start to the frame UMSL finished the set hitting .364 with 15 kills and was led by Humm with six kills while Rang added five more. Kylie Adams led the back line with four digs in the stanza as the Tritons held the Lakers to a .161 hitting percentage.

The final set belonged to the Tritons as it raced out to a 9-3 lead and led by as many as 14 points at 23-9 after a block by Rang and Elliott. GVSU ran off four in a row to close within 10 but back-to-back kills from Flowers and Rang ended the match. UMSL recorded four of its nine total blocks in the final frame.

The Tritons hit .236 for the match with 56 kills against 23 errors in 140 chances and were led by Humm with 15 kills while Rang added 14 and Flowers finished with 12. Caitlin Bishop had 51 assists and nine digs while Adams led the backline with a match-high 20 digs and Skylar Weaver matched her career-high with 13 digs. Elliott had six blocks in the contest while Weaver and Rang had three aces each.

UMSL finished with 74 digs in the match and held the Lakers to .072 attack percentage. Wight led GVSU with 11 kills while Gates had a triple-double with 10 kills, 17 assists and 11 digs.

The Tritons will face second seeded and No. 21 Ferris State in Saturday's championship match at 7 p.m. It's a rematch of last year's Midwest Regional final and is the third straight year the two sides have meet in the postseason.