St. Louis – Alayna Santel recorded a career-high 28 kills in the University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team's 3-1 win over Drury on Saturday afternoon at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons improve to 7-5, 2-0 GLVC while the Panthers are 10-3, 1-1 GLVC.
UMSL held an early 4-3 lead in the opening set before Drury seized control thanks to a 17-3 run that saw it build a 20-7 lead. The Tritons made it interesting late cutting the deficit to 22-16 but wouldn't get any closer as the Panthers scored the final three points to take the set 25-16. Drury hit .326 in the stanza and was led by Skylar Hilton and Chaney Barth with five kills each. Santel kept UMSL in it recording seven of its 12 kills.
The Tritons jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the second frame but the Panthers ran off four of the next five points to tie it at six. UMSL countered with an 8-3 as it took advantage of six Panther errors to build its lead. Drury battled back to within 17-16 after a kill from Gwen Kubik but the Tritons answered scoring six straight points to build their largest lead of the set at 23-16. The Panthers cut the deficit to 24-20 but wouldn't get any closer as
Maggie Johnson knocked home a kill giving UMSL the 25-20 victory.
The Tritons carried the momentum into set three as a 12-6 run enabled them to a 15-9 lead. The Panthers cut the margin to four after a kill from Abby Renshaw before UMSL put it away with an 8-2 run to build a 23-13 lead. Drury wouldn't get closer than eight points the rest of the stanza as the Tritons won 25-16 on a kill from
Brooklyn Young.
The fourth set was all UMSL as it raced out to an early three-point lead and never looked back as it lead by as many as 13 in the stanza. It hit .425 in the frame with 18 kills against one error in 40 swings and were led by Santel with seven kills while Johnson added four and Young and
Bridget Cassady added three each.
The Tritons finished the contest hitting .230 with 59 kills against 21 errors in 165 swings and was led by Santel. She was joined in double figures by Johnson and Cassady with 10 kills apiece.
Marly Burbach finished with 44 assists, Young and Cassady had four blocks each and
Skylar Weaver had a match-high 23 digs.
The Panthers hit .150 in the contest with 46 kills against 22 errors in 160 attempts and were led by Barth with 15 kills. Jacy Bray handed out 35 assists, Gracie Kimrey added seven blocks and Taylor Wood finished with 16 digs.
UMSL is back in action on Friday (Sept. 25) as it travels to Quincy, Ill. to take on the Hawks at 6 p.m. at Pepsi Arena.
