St. Louis – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team extended its winning streak to 10 as it won a five-set thriller 3-2 over crosstown rival Maryville on Friday evening at Moloney Arena in St. Louis. The Tritons improve to 12-5, 7-0 GLVC while the Saints fall to 8-10, 3-3 GLVC.
Everything went UMSL's way in the opening set as it .588 with 20 kills against zero errors in 34 attempts and was led by
Brooklyn Young with seven kills while
Maggie Johnson added five more kills in the 25-13 victory.
The second frame saw 12 ties and seven lead changes. The Tritons led 17-14 after a kill from Young but Maryville went on a 7-3 run to take a 21-20 lead after a kill from Emma Keele. UMSL got a kill from
Alayna Santel and an ace from Johnson to retake the lead 22-21 but was unable to close out the stanza as the Saints scored four of the final five points to win 25-23 and even the match at a set apiece.
The swing set was tied at seven when UMSL took control with a 7-0 run as Johnson had a pair of kills in the run while Johnson and
Mady Gant added one each. The Tritons still led by five late in the frame but Maryville went on a 6-3 run to pull within 22-20 after a kill from Ella Domian. UMSL was able to close the set out though scoring three of the final four points to win 25-21.
The Tritons led by four midway through set four but were unable to stop a 7-0 run by the Saints that saw them take a 15-12 lead and UMSL wouldn't get closer than two points the rest of the stanza as Maryville pulled away for the 25-16 victory to force the winner take all final set.
The Tritons jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the finale and still led 10-6 but the Saints fought back tying the set at 10 on back-to-back aces from Cami Kometscher. UMSL scored three of the next four points to build a 13-11 lead after a kill from Johnson. The Saints countered with back-to-back kills from Emma Hoing and Domian to even things at 13.
Santel and Gant teamed up to block Hoing to give the Tritons match point but a kill by Domian evened things at 14. UMSL closed out the match as Santel recorded a kill and then ace to give the Tritons the 16-14 victory.
UMSL hit .344 in the match with 74 kills against 18 errors in 163 attempts and was led by Santel with a match-high 22 kills while Johnson added 18 more kills and Young and
Bridget Cassady added 14 kills apiece.
Marly Burbach recorded career-highs in assists (63) and digs (17) while
Skylar Weaver finished with a match-high 25 digs.
Maryville had an attack percentage of .268 with 61 kills against 17 errors in 164 attempts and was led by Domian with 15 kills. Kohmetscher had 35 assists, Keele finished with 13 digs and Leslie Longanbach had six total blocks.
The Tritons head to Rolla, Mo., on Saturday afternoon to take on Missouri S&T at 3 p.m. at Gibson Arena.
