MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – It wasn't easy at times but the fourth ranked University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team survived an upset bid from seventh seeded Anderson (S.C.) to win 3-1 and advance to Friday's semifinal contest. The Tritons improve to 34-1 while the Trojans end their season with a record of 28-6.

"It was a good competitive match," UMSL head coach Ryan Young said. "Anderson did an excellent job of slowing our offense down. Looking at the numbers they held us to under .200 hitting in each of the first two sets. We started to pass better as the match went on which led to more opportunities in transition and then started clicking offensively in sets three and four which has been our bread and butter all year."

The opening set went back-and-forth early but UMSL led 10-9 after a kill from Lexie Rang. That would be its last lead of the set as Anderson scored the next four points to build a 13-10 lead after an attack error by Rang.

The Tritons battled back to within 14-13 after another kill from Rang but couldn't get over the hump as the Trojans ran off eight of the next 10 points to build its largest lead of the stanza at 22-15 as Brantley Chipley and Rylie Sargent teamed up to block Hannah Copeland.

UMSL closed to within 23-19 but Anderson scored the final two points to take the opening frame 25-19.

The Tritons were held to a .128 attack percentage in the set with 12 kills against seven errors in 39 chances.

"We struggled with our first contact which didn't give Cait (Bishop) the best chance to spread around our offense," Rang said. "Maybe the nerves got to us but we told ourselves to calm down, start strong, win the mini games to five and we'll be okay."

"I think we were nervous," Hailey Flowers said. "We started focusing on the next ball and getting a good pass so Cait could have more offense to run. Our energy was also a big part of it."

UMSL fell behind by three to start the second set before going on a 10-4 run to take a three-point lead after a kill from Delaney Humm. It was a lead it wouldn't relinquish as it extended its lead to as many as seven at 22-15 after Copeland and Flowers teamed up to block Sargent.

The Trojans scored four of the next five points to close within four but wouldn't get any closer as the Tritons scored two of the final three points to win 25-20 and even the match at a set apiece.

The swing set was tied at 15 when UMSL ran off six of the next eight points to take a 21-17 lead after Rang blocked Jenna Long. Anderson wouldn't get closer than three the rest of the set as the Tritons finished strong scoring four of the final six points to win 25-19 after a kill from Caitlin Bishop.

"There were certain rotations where we thought we could score points on them," Young said. "I felt we had some advantages which was probably when that happened and that definitely changed the momentum."

The final stanza was back-and-forth early but it was the Trojans to take control first going on a 6-2 run to take a 15-11 lead after a kill from Tabitha Wheeler. UMSL scored five of the next seven points to draw within 17-16 after an attack error from Chipley.

Anderson quieted the run momentarily scoring back-to-back points but the Tritons had one final run in them closing the match scoring nine of the last 11 points to win 25-21 to complete the comeback.

"I told them our backs are against the wall and we needed to side out every time we could and we felt we were coming up to those rotations where we could chip away. Maybe not go on a five- or six-point run but score a couple, side out, score a couple and they did that extremely well. We blocked a couple of balls and put some pressure on them with our serving and then we were able to finish it off," Young said.

The Tritons hit .240 for the match recording 62 kills against 22 errors in 167 chances and was led by Rang with a match-high 23 kills while Humm finished with 16 kills and Flowers added 10 kills. Bishop handed out 53 assists, Rang and Copeland had five blocks each and Kylie Adams had a match-high 22 digs.

The Trojans were held to a .146 hitting percentage with 49 kills against 25 errors in 164 attempts. Wheeler led the way with 15 kills while Jaelyn Grimm and Sargent had 10 kills each. Chipley finished with eight blocks, Long distributed 35 set assists and Lindseay McCurley had 19 digs.

UMSL will play Cal State Los Angeles in the national semifinals on Friday afternoon at 4 p.m. at the UPMC Events Center in Moon Township, Pa. The sixth seeded Golden Eagles upset third seeded Wayne State (Neb.) in five sets in Thursday's first match of the day.