 "Photo: AHMAD ALJURYYED / THE CURRENT")
Heading into last weekend’s action, the University of Missouri-St. Louis women’s volleyball team needed just one win to clinch itself a spot in the 2009 postseason.
After a loss on Friday at Southern Indiana, the Tritons got the win they needed with a three games to none sweep at Kentucky Wesleyan on Saturday.
Sarah Eisnaugle, senior, art history/graphic design, had a match-high 10 kills to lead the UM-St. Louis offense, while top defensive specialist Carolyn Holstein, junior, business, raised her GLVC-leading dig total to 554 on the season, with a match-high 11 digs against the Panthers.
Triton setters Kayla Kinzinger, junior, education, and Samantha Martley, junior, biology, shared the passing duties for most of the match, with Kinzinger totaling a match-high 23 assists and Martley adding 13 of her own as UM-St. Louis defeated Wesleyan by scores of 25-14, 25-20 and 25-12.
The victory raised UM-St. Louis’ overall record to 19-10, and gave them a 9-3 mark in the Great Lakes Valley Conference play this season. The Tritons are currently in third place in the GLVC, and with two matches left in the regular season, could finish no worse than seventh.
That means UM-St. Louis has assured itself one of the eight spots available in next week’s GLVC Championship Tournament. Winning that tournament would give the Tritons their very first GLVC title, and would earn the team an automatic bid to the NCAA National Championship Tournament.
Even if UM-St. Louis does not win the GLVC tourney, a good showing at the event might be enough to sway the national selection committee into giving the Tritons an at-large bid into the national tournament, which would be the program’s first NCAA Tournament berth since 1995.
UM-St. Louis volleyball coach Trent Jones said he is not even thinking that far ahead.
He, instead, is more interested in how his team is playing in the here and now.
“I thought today we had a good practice,” Jones said after last Thursday’s workout at the Mark Twain Building. “That was the best practice we had in probably two weeks. But we won’t really know what it means until [we play Southern Indiana.]”
The Tritons got off to a roaring start against Southern Indiana. They won the first game in that match 25-17. But soon after, UM-St. Louis fizzled and lost the last three games 22-25, 22-25 and 21-25.
The key element in that very close match was probably UM-St. Louis’ hit percentage, which got progressively worse throughout the match.
In the first game (the one they won), the Tritons hit a sizzling .433 percent. But in the second, third, and fourth games, UM-St. Louis’s hit percentage went down to .219, .196 and .114, respectively.
Weslie Gaff, sophomore, accounting, had a match-high 17 kills for the Tritons. Liz Cook, junior, education, and Erin Higgins, sophomore, early childhood education added 14 and 10 kills apiece.
Kinzinger had a big night setting up her teammates with a match-high 43 assists, while Holstein led the defense with a match-high 22 digs against USI, notching her 16th 20-plus dig night of the season.
This weekend, the Tritons will close out the regular season with two home matches at the Mark Twain Building. On Friday, Nov. 6, UM-St. Louis will host Bellarmine at 7 p.m. in a match the Knights need to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Then on Saturday, Nov. 7, the Tritons will take on Northern Kentucky at 3 p.m. The match that day will be one of the most important of the season because the winner will likely clinch the third seed at the GLVC Tournament.
That becomes important because it would, in theory at least, earn that team a more favorable pairing in the first round of the tournament, while also offering the chance to avoid likely top seed Lewis until the championship round.
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