St. Louis – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team defeated Upper Iowa 3-0 for its ninth straight win on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons improve to 11-5, 6-0 GLVC while the Peacocks drop to 5-9, 2-4 GLVC.
UMSL used an efficient offensive attack in the opening set as it hit .306 with 13 kills against two errors in 36 swings as it won the opener 25-16.
Alayna Santel had five kills in the stanza while
Maggie Johnson added four more and
Bridget Cassady had three kills.
The Tritons jumped out to an early three-point lead in the middle frame but Upper Iowa hung around and led 17-16 after an attack error by
Brooklyn Young. UMSL regained the lead thanks to back-to-back kills from
Mady Gant.
The Peacocks countered with a 3-1 run to tie the stanza at 20 on a kill from Faith Fisher. The Tritons were able to close out the set scoring five of the final six points to win 25-21. Santel had two kills in the run and teamed up with Young to block Marissa Becker on the final swing of the set.
The third set was the tightest of the contest with 14 ties and five lead changes. UIU led by as many as four points at 20-16 after an error by Cassady. UMSL went on a 4-1 run to cut the margin to 21-20 but the Peacocks scored two of the next three points to extend its lead to 23-21. The Tritons tied it at 23 on an error by Fisher but Upper Iowa got to set point first as Fisher got a kill to make it 24-23.
UMSL fought off set point getting kills from Santel and Gant to take a 25-24 lead. The Tritons had six chances to close out the match but each time the Peacocks scored to extend the match. The set was tied at 31 when Santel recorded a kill giving UMSL its seventh match point. The Tritons won it on the next rally as Erica Conger tried to go for the back corner but her attempt was long giving UMSL the 33-31 win.
The Tritons hit .265 in the contest with 54 kills against 15 errors in 147 attempts. Johnson led the way with 17 kills while Santel finished with 16 kills and Cassady added 14 kills.
Marly Burbach finished with 45 digs,
Skylar Weaver had 19 digs and Gant had five total blocks.
Upper Iowa had an attack percentage of .176 with 42 kills against 19 errors in 131 swings and was led by Fisher with a match-high 18 kills. Grace Fruzen had 32 assists and three aces while Morgan Block had a match-high 21 digs.
UMSL takes on crosstown rival Maryville on Friday (Oct. 9) at 6 p.m. at Moloney Arena.
