ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – The eighth ranked University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team picked up two sweeps on Friday at the Flagler Saints Classic in St. Augustine, Fla. The Tritons (6-0) defeated Embry-Riddle (4-2) in their first match of the day and then swept the host Saints (1-4) in the night cap.
No. 8 Missouri-St. Louis 3 Embry-Riddle 0
UMSL fell behind by three early before going on a 10-4 run to turn the deficit into a three-point lead after a kill from
Hannah Copeland. The Eagles clawed back to within 17-16 after a kill from Jaden McBride. The Tritons pushed their lead back to four at 22-18 after
Lexie Rang's eighth kill of the set. ERU wouldn't go quietly scoring three straight to get back to within 22-21 but UMSL countered again with back-to-back kills from
Mya Elliott and
Delaney Humm to get to set point first. The Eagles fought off the first two set points but not a third as
Caitlin Bishop ended the frame with a kill.
The Tritons led wire-to-wire in the middle stanza as they hit a blistering 60.6 percent with 21 kills against one error in 33 chances. Embry-Riddle was just as impressive offensively hitting 44.4 percent registering 17 kills against one error in 36 swings. UMSL led by as many as five in the frame but needed a late run to hold off the Eagles comeback attempt to win the frame 25-20.
The Tritons jumped out to a five-point lead early in the third set but Embry-Riddle fought back to take a 16-15 lead after a kill from Jaden McBride. UMSL came right back scoring four straight to retake the lead at 19-16 after an ace serve from
Trysta Foster. Just like the opening set, the Eagles punched back scoring four in a row of its own to take a 20-19 lead after a service ace from McBride. The Tritons scored five of the next seven points to reach match point at 24-22 after a kill from Copeland. ERU fought off the first set point but wouldn't stave another as Copeland ended the match with her fifth kill of the contest to give UMSL the 25-23 win.
The Tritons hit a season-high .414 with 60 kills against 12 errors in 116 chances. Rang and Humm combined for 38 of those kills. Rang had a season-high 21 while Humm had a season-best 17. Bishop finished with a double-double recording 46 assists and 13 digs.
The Eagles hit an impressive .351 percent with 47 kills against five errors in 114 chances and were led by Hunter Ackerman with 15 kills while McBride added 14 kills and 11 digs. Grace Datil finished the match with 34 assists.
No. 8 Missouri-St. Louis 3 Flagler 0
In its second game of the day UMSL jumped out to an early three-point lead and led by as many as seven in the frame on its way to the 25-18 set win.
Hailey Flowers led the Tritons with five kills in the stanza while Rang added four and Humm and Elliott finished with three kills each in the frame.
UMSL fell behind to begin the middle set but quickly turned that deficit into a lead and wouldn't look back as it led by as many as eight in the stanza on its way to the 25-17 victory. The Tritons hit .400 in the frame with 17 kills against three errors in 35 chances. Humm had five of those kills while Elliott and Flowers finished with three apiece.
The final set was back-and-forth early before UMSL pulled away taking a 16-11 lead after an error by Molly Boyd. The Saints battled back to within 17-15 but wouldn't get closer than two the rest of the way as the Tritons closed the match on an 8-5 run to win 25-20 on an ace serve from
Rylee Edson.
UMSL hit .269 in the contest with 43 kills against 15 errors in 104 chances. Flowers and Humm led the way with 10 kills each. Rang added eight kills, Copeland had seven and Elliott finished with six. Bishop handed out 35 assists, Foster served six aces and
Kylie Adams finished with 20 digs.
Flagler hit .207 for the match with 33 kills against 14 errors in 92 swings. Cassidy Bloom led the Saints with 10 kills. Lainee Mack and Amelia Fitzpatrick had 13 assists each and Fitzpatrick also had nine digs.
The Tritons conclude play in the Flagler Saints Classic on Saturday taking on Converse at 10 a.m. (CDT) and Missouri Southern at 4 p.m. (CDT).
