ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team dropped its final match at the Hyatt Place Bash at the Beach to host Palm Beach Atlantic 3-1 on Saturday morning at Rubin Arena in West Palm Beach, Fla. The Tritons drop to 7-4 while the Sailfish improve to 9-1.

UMSL trailed 15-12 in the opening set but used a quick 3-0 run to draw even at 15 after a kill from Hannah Copeland. The two sides went back and forth and were tied at 18 when PBA scored three out of four points to grab a 21-19 advantage. The Tritons pulled to within 21-20 but couldn't overcome the deficit as the Sailfish scored four of the final five points to take the stanza 25-21.

UMSL hit .211 in the frame with Alayna Santel registering five kills while Copeland added four kills.

The Tritons fell behind by six to start set two but rallied to take a three-point lead after a bad set by Grace Reynolds. It was the Sailfish's turn to rally and they did scoring six of the next eight points to take a 22-21 lead when Harper Stokes and Rachel Smith teamed to block Brooklyn Young.

UMSL tied it at 22 with a kill from Santel but PBA scored the next two points to reach set point first. The Tritons fought off the first two set points to even it at 24 but couldn't regain the lead as the Sailfish scored the final two points of the set to win it 26-24.

The third set was all UMSL as it led wire-to-wire. It jumped out to the early lead and led by as many as 11 in the stanza. PBA got as close as 17-11 but the Tritons finished strong closing the stanza on an 8-4 run to extend the match.

UMSL hit .237 with 15 kills in the frame and were led by Santel with four while Copeland, Iyannah Jackson and Addison Voorhees had three kills each.
The Tritons got off to another good start in set four leading by three early but the Sailfish used a 16-4 run to turn that deficit into a nine-point advantage and wouldn't look back. UMSL cut it to six late but a kill from Stokes ended the comeback attempt as PBA won 25-18.

The Tritons hit .167 in the match with 50 kills against 24 errors in 156 attempts. Santel had a match-high 18 kills and five aces. She was joined in double figures by Copeland with 11 while Jackson and Voorhees had seven kills each. Marly Burbach finished with a double-double recording 30 assists, 12 digs and three aces. Skylar Weaver had a match-high 24 digs.

UMSL opens Great Lakes Valley Conference play next weekend traveling to the southwest part of Missouri. The Tritons will take on Drury next Friday evening at 6 p.m. at the O'Reilly Family Events Center in Springfield, Mo.