UMSL Falls in Five-Game Heartbreaker

St. Louis, Mo. – The Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team suffered their sixth, five-game loss this year with a 3-2 (36-34, 32-30, 24-30, 29-31, 16-14) against Indianapolis on Friday night. The match was tight the whole way, as four of the five games needed extra points before being settled.

UMSL fell into a 2-0 hole by losing the first two games. The first game was close from start to finish, with a total of 18 ties in the game before the Greyhounds got the final two points for the 36-34 win. The second game again went into extra points, with 13 ties in that game. UMSL had a late lead at 27-24, but UIndy came back to tie it a 27-27 and eventually went on for the 32-30 win. UM-St. Louis came back strong in the third game, winning 30-23 in the only game that did not need extra points to be decided. The fourth game saw UMSL get an early six-point lead and held that lead for most of the game. UIndy did not get their first lead until 25-24, but UMSL bounced right back and took a 27-26 lead and held on for the 31-29 win and force a fifth game. In that fifth game, UMSL had an early 3-1 lead, and led 8-5 when the teams switched sides. UIndy used a 5-1 run to take the lead at 12-11, but UMSL would tie it at 14-14 before the Greyhounds got the final two points for a 16-14 win to take the match 3-2.

UMSL was led by Christy Trame with 20 kills on the night and seven total blocks. Senior Erin Denton recorded 19 kills, 18 digs and five blocks on senior night. Claudia Medina recorded 15 kills, 23 digs and eight service aces on the night and Lisa Brinker had 67 assists on the night.

UM-St. Louis is now 10-17 on the season and falls to 7-8 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. Despite the loss, UMSL secured a bid to the GLVC Tournament with losses by Bellarmine and Drury in their matches on Friday night. It is still to be determined whether UMSL will qualify as the seventh or eighth seed in the tournament, which will be held next weekend at SIU Edwardsville. UMSL will be at home for their final regular season match against Saint Joseph’s on Saturday at 2 pm.