Hammond, Ind. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team went 2-0 on Friday at the 18th Annual Midwest Region Crossover at the Hammond SportsPlex in Hammond, Ind. The Tritons defeated Walsh 3-1 in its first match of the day and then held on for a 3-2 win over Michigan Tech in its second match.
Match 1: UMSL 3, Walsh 1
UMSL (15-5) led 13-9 midway through the opening stanza before the Cavaliers (12-8) went on a 7-1 run to take a 16-14 advantage after a service ace from Izzy Shank. The Tritons still trailed 17-15 but closed the set on a 10-3 run to take the opener 25-20.
Addison Voorhees had a pair of kills in the run while
Alayna Santel added a kill and an ace.
UMSL dominated the second frame hitting .462 with 15 kills against three errors in 26 swings and was led by Voorhees with five kills while Santel,
Maggie Johnson and
Brooklyn Young had three kills apiece. The Tritons led by as many as 12 in the set.
The third set was all Walsh as it jumped out to an 11-0 lead and wouldn't look back on its way to 25-7 victory. The Cavaliers served eight aces in the stanza led by Emerson Sheets with seven of them.
UMSL regrouped in set four but trailed 15-13 before going on a 4-1 run to take a 17-16 lead after an attack error by Shank. The two sides exchanged the next eight points as the Tritons still led 21-20 but Walsh got back-to-back kills from Shank and Maggie Rolwing to take a 22-21 lead. UMSL countered scoring the final four points of the stanza to win 25-22 on an ace from
Marly Burbach.
The Tritons hit .252 for the contest with 51 kills against 18 errors in 131 attempts and was led by Santel with 17 kills while Voorhees added 13 kills. Burbach dished out 42 assists, Young finished with four blocks and
Skylar Weaver had a match-high 23 digs.
The Cavaliers had an attack percentage of .264 recording 46 kills against 14 errors in 121 swings and was led by Shank with 11 kills while Maria Montseny added 10 kills. AJ Burick had 22 assists, Sheets finished with 20 assists and 10 aces while Rowling had five total blocks and Lucie Levengood had nine digs.
Match 2: UMSL 3 Michigan Tech 2
UMSL fell behind early 4-1 and still trailed 17-13 when it went on a 4-0 run to even the set at 17 on an ace from Burbach. The Huskies (10-10) retook the lead on a kill from Jacqueline Yancy but that would be its final lead of the frame as the Tritons scored the last eight points to win 25-17. Santel, Voorhees and
Mady Gant each had a kill in the run while Johnson added a service ace.
UMSL jumped out to a 5-1 lead to start the second stanza and led by as many as five at 17-12 but Michigan Tech outscored the Tritons 13-4 the rest of the way to take the second set 25-21.
UMSL overcame an eight-point deficit in the swing set as Voorhees recorded eight of her career-high 27 kills in the stanza to lead the Tritons to a 25-23 victory. The Tritons used runs of 6-0 and 6-1 to win the frame and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
UMSL was unable to close out the match in set four as the Huskies hit .357 with 15 kills while holding the Tritons to a negative .125 hitting percentage. Rachel Zurek had four of her 15 kills in the stanza.
UMSL gave up two of the first three points in the decisive fifth set before rattling off six of the next seven points to take a 7-3 lead. It was a lead the Tritons wouldn't relinquish. The Huskies cut the margin to three at 13-10 but wouldn't get any closer as UMSL scored two of the last three points to seal the victory on a kill from Voorhees.
Voorhees hit .875 in the final stanza with seven kills against zero errors in eight attempts while the Tritons as a whole hit .800 in the frame13 kills against an error in 15 attempts.
UMSL finished the match hitting .206 with 62 kills against 26 errors in 175 swings and was led by Voorhees. She was joined in double figures by Johnson with 17 kills while Santel added 10 more. Burbach handed out 51 assists, Santel, Burbach and Young each had two blocks while Weaver finished with 24 digs.
Michigan Tech hit .252 in the contest with 61 kills against 22 errors in 155 swings and was led by Zurek with 15 kills while Paige Wagner added 12 kills. Madelyn Kreider had 48 assists and 17 digs and Tricia Kennedy added five total blocks.
The Tritons wrap up play in the Crossover on Saturday against No. 16 Grand Valley State at 2 p.m. at the Hammond SportsPlex in Hammond, Ind.
