St. Louis – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball rallied for a 3-2 win over Lewis to extend its winning streak to 15 at the Mark Twain Building on Friday evening. The Tritons improve to 17-5, 9-0 GLVC while the Flyers drop to 12-11, 5-3 GLVC.
UMSL used a 14-1 run in the opening frame to build its largest lead of the match at 17-4.
Brooklyn Young had four kills in the rally while
Maggie Johnson and
Addison Voorhees added two apiece. Lewis answered with a 7-2 run to pull within 19-11 but wouldn't get any closer as the Tritons scored the final six points to take the opener 25-11.
The Flyers jumped out to an 8-3 lead to start the second set but UMSL rallied to tie it at eight on an ace from
Alayna Santel. Lewis went back in front and led 15-13 when the Tritons rallied with four straight points to seize a 17-15 advantage on a kill from Santel. The Flyers didn't back down countering with an 8-2 run to build a 23-19 lead after a kill from Kyra Marciniak. UMSL cut the deficit in half thanks to a service error and a block by
Mady Gant and
Marly Burbach but that would be as close as the Tritons got as Lewis scored the final two points to win 25-21 and even the match at a set apiece.
The Flyers jumped out to the early lead in the swing set but UMSL rallied and led 14-13 after an attack error from Marin Grossman. Lewis scored four of the next six points to retake the lead at 16-14 after a kill from Ann-Kelly Velikov.
It was the Tritons turn to answer and they did scoring four of the next five points to lead 20-18 after a kill from Young. The Flyers battled back to even the stanza at 20 but three straight points by UMSL gave it a 23-20 lead. The Tritons had three chances to serve out the set but Lewis answered each time to extend the set and eventually won 28-26 as Kaileigh Krawec and Sarah Newberry blocked Voorhees to win it and give Lewis a 2-1 lead in the match.
The Tritons led 16-14 in set four when it went on a 7-0 run as Gant recorded three blocks in the surge teaming up with Santel on the last two. The Flyers cut it to seven but a service error by Velikov gave the set victory to UMSL to force a winner take all final set.
The Tritons trailed in the final frame before scoring four straight points to lead 7-4 after a kill from Young. It would be a lead UMSL wouldn't relinquish as it extend the margin to six on a net violation by Marciniak. Lewis fought off the first match point but not a second as Santel ended the match with a kill.
The Tritons hit .300 for the contest with 66 kills against 18 errors in 160 swings and were led by Voorhees and Santel with 17 kills apiece while Young added 12 and Johnson and Gant finished with 10 kills apiece. Burbach handed out 54 assists to reach 1,000 assists for her career while Gant added six blocks and
Skylar Weaver had a match-high 23 digs.
The Flyers had an attack percentage of .176 in the match with 56 kills against 28 errors in 159 attempts and were led by Velikov with 16 kills while Grossman added 12 and Marciniak finished with 10. Grace Malek had 22 assists, Newberry added five blocks and Kynzie Lilly finished with 14 digs.
UMSL hosts UIndy in its final home match of the regular season on Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. The Tritons will honor their five seniors in a pre-match ceremony.
