After an impressive showing in the Ft. Wayne, Ind., tournament the women's volleyball team is preparing for its conference matches.

The team went to the tournament and secured a 3-1 record. It is currently 5-3 overall.

The first match in the tournament was against Oakland University, a Division I school from Detroit. Oakland defeated UM-St. Louis 3-1 and went undefeated at the tournament.

"Angie McCubbins had a nice match defensively, with 14 digs, a team high. Nicole Wall also had a good match offensively, hitting .250," head coach Denise Silvester, said.

The next opponent for the Riverwomen was Grand Valley University. UM-St.Louis defeated Grand Valley 3-2, with the decisive tie breaker going to UM-St.Louis 15-11.

"We started off real strong, and then we lost our focus," Silvester said. Silvester also commented on the status of her only senior.

"Laura Gray had a good performance with 38 assists and 12 digs. She led the team in the fifth game tie breaker," Silvestor said. "Laura is not fully recovered from her injuries yet, but she is able to play. This is her last go around, and she wants to give it her best shot."

In the following match, UM-St.Louis faced Ashland University, a team which already defeated the Riverwomen once in a five game heartbreaker in Kenosha, Wis.

This match went in favor of UM-St.Louis as the Riverwomen defeated Ashland 3-1.

"We avenged our loss to them on the previous weekend. Susan Claggett hit .227 offensively, and Michelle Hochstatter had 3 solo blocks. Anne McCord had a nice match hitting .350 and had 10 digs and 2 blocks," Silvester said.

The last game featured UM-St.Louis against the University of California-Pennsylvania in which the Riverwomen decisively won 3-1.

Susan Kleinschnitz hit .444 and had four blocks while Leslie Armstrong led the team with 7 assists.

"Overall, it was a good tournament. Our goal was to come out 3-1," Silvester said. "We achieved our goal and now move on to conference play,"

The team will play Wisconsin-Parkside Sept.12 and Lewis University Sept.13.

Silvester believes both of these conference matches will be very tough.

"Wisconsin-Parkside has a current record of 6-3, and it will be a very close match. Lewis University is 3-5 but has faced a tough schedule. It should be a long, close match.

These teams are very even in talent," Silvester said.

The strength of the conference lies in teams such as Northern Kentucky, IP-FW, Southern Indiana and SIU-Edwardsville.

"The team is getting better every week as we start one senior, three sophomores and two freshmen," Silvester said.