Lebanon, Ill. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team began three-match road trip with a 3-1 win against McKendree on Friday evening at the Melvin Price Convocation Center in Lebanon, Ill. The Tritons improve to 18-6, 10-1 GLVC while the Bearcats fall to 4-20, 0-11 GLVC.
UMSL got off to a slow start falling behind 5-1 to begin the match. McKendree's used its defense to score recording three blocks to open the scoring. The Tritons evened things up with a 4-0 run then the two sides traded points and were tied at eight after a kill from
Brooklyn Young.
The Bearcats scored three of the next four points to grab an 11-9 lead but UMSL countered scoring seven of the next eight points to take the lead for good at 16-12.
Addison Voorhees had a pair of kills in that run. McKendree got as close as three at 19-16 before the Tritons closed the set on a 6-1 run to win the set 25-17. Voorhees and
Maggie Johnson had five kills apiece in the frame.
UMSL never trailed in the second set as it led by as many as six points in the frame. The Bearcats made a late run to pull within 22-19 but the Tritons ended the set scoring three of the final four points to take the set 25-20. Johnson and
Alayna Santel combined for eight of the team's 13 kills in the stanza.
McKendree built a four-point lead midway through set two but UMSL rallied thanks to an 8-2 run to grab a 22-20 advantage after a kill from Johnson. However, the Tritons were unable to complete the sweep as the Bearcats scored five of the final six points to win the frame 25-23 and extend the match to a fourth set.
The fourth stanza was all UMSL as it led by as many as 11 points in the frame while hitting .400 with 16 kills against four errors in 30 attempts and had a side-out percentage of 80 percent. Santel, Johnson and Voorhees combined for 14 of the team's 16 kills in the frame.
The Tritons finished the match hitting .277 with 62 kills against 21 errors in 148 attempts and were led by Voorhees with 17 kills while Johnson and Santel added 15 kills each. Johnson finished with three blocks,
Marly Burbach handed out 49 assists and had a match-high 16 digs.
McKendree had an attack percentage of .164 with 45 kills against 21 errors in 146 swings and was led by Avery Guisinger with 13 kills and 10 total blocks. Peyton Uptgraft finished with 35 assists and Bianca Galaviz and Reece Distler added nine digs each.
UMSL continues its three-match road trip at Rockhurst next Friday (Nov. 6) at 6 p.m. at Mason-Halpin Fieldhouse in Kansas City, Mo.
