UMSL Battle Tough, Falls to #2 Truman

St. Louis, Mo. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team played second-ranked Truman on Tuesday night and fell 3-0 (30-22, 30-28, 30-26) to the Bulldogs. UMSL was close through most of the match but fell a few points shy in each game.

The first game saw Truman grab the early lead but UMSL stayed close as they trailed by just one point at 14-13. The Bulldogs then scored the next eight points in a row to take control at 22-13, but UMSL played even with Truman the rest of the game before losing 30-22. Truman pushed out to a big lead in the second game, leading by eight points at 19-11 when UMSL made a strong run. UM-St. Louis scored 11 of the next 12 points to take a 22-20 lead at that point in the game, and got three kills from Chelsea Baumstark (Hermann, Mo./Hermann) to spark that run. UMSL held the lead and pushed it to three points at 24-21 before Truman came back and tied it at 25-25. UMSL got kills from Sarah Eisnaugle (Newark, Ill./Newark) and Cluadia Medina (Las Cruces, N.M./Las Cruces) to take a 27-25 lead, but Truman closed out the game scoring five of the next six points to win 30-28. The third game was another close one, with nine ties in the early going. With the scored knotted up at 10-10, Truman scored five of the next six to take a 15-11 lead and held that lead the rest of the game. UMSL got down by as many as six points at 20-14, but closed to within three points on several occasions, the last at 27-24, before the Bulldogs held on for the 30-26 win.

UMSL was led by Sarah Eisnaugle with a match-high 14 kills and just two errors in 32 attempts. Claudia Medina had nine kills and a match high 22 digs and Erin Denton (Crystal City, Mo./Crystal City) added eight kills. Lisa Brinker (Washington, Mo./Washington) had 36 assists and Joslyn Brown (Plainfield, Ill./Joliet Catholic) added 17 digs for UM-St. Louis.

UMSL is now 7-12 overall on the season and will return to conference play with a pair of road matches this weekend. UM-St. Louis will travel to play at Lewis on Friday night and at Wisconsin-Parkside on Saturday afternoon.