ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team clinched a share of the Great Lakes Valley Conference regular season title with a sweep of William Jewell on Friday evening at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons extended their winning streak to 15 and improve to 22-4, 12-0 GLVC while the Cardinals drop to 4-22, 0-12 GLVC.
After an early tie to begin the match, UMSL seized control with a 9-1 run to build an eight-point lead.
Skylar Weaver served six straight points in the run. The Tritons lead grew 11 points after a kill from
Alanya Santel and cruised to a 25-11 win in the opening set.
UMSL hit .438 in the frame with 19 kills and were led by Santel and
Iyannah Jackson with seven and six kills respectively.
The Tritons used an early 7-2 run in the middle stanza to build an 8-3 lead and wouldn't look back on their way to a 25-14 victory. Santel and Jackson combined for 10 of the team's 15 kills in the set with
Bridget Cassady adding three more.
The final stanza was the tightest of the match but UMSL never relinquished the lead though William Jewell got to within a point a couple of times. The Tritons held a 16-15 lead before scoring three straight to extend the lead four. The Cardinals got a point back on a kill from Kelsey Keling but it wouldn't be enough as UMSL ended the match scoring six of the final eight points to complete the sweep.
UMSL hit .309 for the match with 54 kills against 20 errors in 110 attempts and were led by Santel with a match-high 16 kills while Jackson added 14 kills.
Hannah Copeland added four blocks,
Caitlin Bishop handed out 47 assists,
Skylar Weaver finished with 15 digs and two aces.
The Triton defense held WJC to a .019 attack percentage with 17 kills against 15 errors in 105 swings. Keling led the Cardinals with eight kills off the bench. Reaghan Bible had 16 assists, Wylie Singleton finished with seven total blocks and Ashlynn Rowland had nine digs.
UMSL plays its final home match of the regular season on Saturday hosting Rockhurst at 3 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building.
