Billikens Down William & Mary 3-1
Sept. 6, 2008
ST. LOUIS - Saint Louis picked up its first home victory of the season with a 17-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-23 win over William and Mary (3-2) on day two of the Billiken Invitational presented by Front Door LLC at Chaifetz Arena on Saturday afternoon. The Billikens (4-1) improved to 3-0 all-time against the Tribe. The Billikens' difficulties started early in the first set as the Tribe went up 5-1 on an Erin Skipper kill, a service ace and a pair of SLU hitting errors. Saint Louis got as close as two on two occasions but William & Mary was able to hold the Bills off, building a lead as large as nine en route to the victory. The Tribe out-hit the Billikens .235-.024 but SLU's Bridget Fonke led all players with six kills. SLU got to work right away in the second set, going up 5-0 on a William & Mary service error, a Sally Warning kill, an ace by Fonke, a Tribe hitting miscue and a Megan Boken kill. Following a hitting error, the Bills scored three straight points on three Tribe errors to go up 8-1. William & Mary chipped away at the lead but could get no closer than three points as Saint Louis led for the entire set. SLU setter Whitney Roth recorded 10 assists in the set while seven of her hitters posted kills. Sammi McCloud paced the squad with five kills despite the fact that SLU was out-hit .167-.128. Three Billikens hit better than .500 in the third set to power Saint Louis to a .464 clip and a set-three victory. The Tribe led 2-0 on a kill from Skipper and a service ace but after that it was all SLU as it scored the ensuing five points on a pair of William & Mary mistakes and three kills from Warning. Lauren Christman caught fire mid-set, tallying thee kills in a seven-point span to give Saint Louis an 11-6 edge. The Tribe trimmed the margin to two on a pair of kills from Skipper but the Bills did not let it get any closer as it led by as many as eight to claim the 2-1 lead in the match.
Saint Louis' offense continued to get more consistent in the fourth set, cutting down on mistakes and posting 17 kills to William & Mary's 13. The Bills' five primary hitters each recorded kills in the set as Roth notched 16 assists. The Billikens led early and maintained an edge but the Tribe did not let SLU go up by much as it eventually tied things up at 17-17 on back-to-back kills from Ginny Bray and Abbi Owens. William & Mary went up by two courtesy of a service ace and a Skipper kill. The teams traded points and were tied at points 19 to 23 before Saint Louis eked out the win on a McCloud block and a Tribe hitting error. Skipper led all players with 20 kills while McCloud led four SLU players in double-figure kills with 17. Fonke, Christman and Warning each recorded 11 kills while Christman also had a team-best five blocks. Roth posted her second straight double-double with 46 assists and 13 digs, and Whitney Behrens led the squad with 17 digs to push her career total to 1,014. Boken also had double-digit digs with 14. SLU faces No. 3 Stanford in the tournament finale at 7 p.m. |
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