November 13, 2009

Hitting Woes Doom Volleyball in GLVC Tournament

Box Score

ROMEOVILLE, ILL. – Poor hitting hampered the University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team as the No. 3 seed Tritons lost a 3-1 decision against No. 6 seed Southern Indiana in quarterfinal round action of the 2009 Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament Friday afternoon.

The Screaming Eagles bounced the Tritons from the league tournament for the second straight year, winning 23-25, 25-20, 25-15, 25-19. USI also dealt UMSL a 3-0 loss in last year’s semifinals and defeated the Tritons, 3-1, earlier this year.

UMSL ends the season at 21-11, while Southern Indiana improves to 18-13 and advances to tomorrow’s semifinals, facing the winner of the No. 2 seed Indianapolis vs. No. 7 seed Drury match.

The Tritons registered a season-low .054 hitting percentage, committing 34 errors in 149 attempts with 42 kills. Southern Indiana hit .176, tallying 45 kills.

Senior Sarah Eisnaugle recorded 12 kills and eight blocks to pace UMSL, while sophomore Shelby Crawford finished with eight kills and 15 digs.

UMSL found itself trailing 23-14 in the first set after a slow start. However, the Tritons would manage to reel off 11 straight points to end the set with a 25-23 victory. Eisnaugle and junior Liz Cook each had three kills during that stretch.

After three straight points brought UMSL within 14-13 in the second set, a kill by Southern Indiana followed by three Tritons miscues made the score 18-13 en route to the USI win and a 1-1 match score.

The Screaming Eagles raced to an 8-3 lead in the third set before the Tritons closed the gap to 8-7. Southern Indiana would widen the lead, taking a 16-9 lead and never looked back.

UMSL jumped out to a 9-6 lead in the fourth set, but saw Southern Indiana go on an 11-6 run to garner a 17-15 lead it wouldn’t relinquish for the match victory.

Junior Kayla Kinzinger dished out 36 assists and tallied nine digs. Sophomore Weslie Gaff added eight kills.

Southern Indiana held a 14-10 blocking advantage, while UMSL committed seven service errors in the match and had eight reception errors.

TRITON TIDBITS: Senior Sarah Eisnaugle ends her career ranked in the top 10 of five different career categories at UMSL, including block solos (5th – 78), block assists (5th – 221), total blocks (6th – 299), kills (6th – 963) and kill attempts (6th – 2,524)… junior Kayla Kinzinger moved into 10th all-time in UMSL history with 1,456 career assists.
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