Creighton University
SAINT LOUIS
No. 20 Billikens Too Much For Volleyball
11/10/2009 9:15:00 PM | Volleyball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Bridget Fonke had 17 kills and hit .484 to lead the No. 20 Saint Louis volleyball team to a 3-0 road win at Creighton on Tuesday night. Scores of the match were 25-17, 25-16, 25-22.
Saint Louis won for the 16th time in its past 17 matches and is now 20-6 on the season. Creighton drops to 10-15 overall.
The Billikens had 49 kills, six aces, 52 digs and three blocks while hitting an efficient .234 for the match. Fonke had seven kills in 11 opening set swings, then had six kills without an error in the second stanza. Her 17 kills gave her 1,195 for her career, moving her into eighth in school history. Setter Whitney Roth dished 39 assists while adding nine digs.
Creighton was led by seven kills from Jessica Houts. Allie Oelke, reigning MVC Defensive Player of the Week, led the back line with 18 digs. The Bluejays managed 25 kills, one ace, 53 digs and 8.5 blocks while hitting .116.
Creighton and Saint Louis were tied at 11-all before SLU used a 5-1 run to take the lead for good in the first set. CU would close to within 18-15 before another 4-0 run from the Billikens put the set out of reach.
The Bills were steady once again in the second set to take a 25-16 set victory and go ahead 2-0 in the match. Fonke had six kills and Roth dished 12 assists as SLU hit .263 and held CU to .100 hitting.
The third set had the closest final score, but CU would never lead. Fonke served the Billikens to a 5-0 lead and forced CU to play catch-up the rest of the night. CU did close within 8-5 early. Then, after trailing 19-11, CU finally turned the corner but it was too little, too late. An 8-3 burst got the Jays within three points at 22-19 before Fonke's kill fell to the ground despite a strong dig from Megan Bober. Down 24-20 and facing match point, Houts and Alicia Runge would be involved in consecutive blocks to force a Saint Louis timeout. However, Alyssa Deno forced down a kill to earn the sideout and end the match.
Creighton returns to action on Friday with a 6 pm contest against Southern Illinois. That match can be heard on KOIL (1180 AM) and will be followed by the women's basketball season-opener against Arkansas State at 8:35 pm.
NOTES: Jessica Houts established new Creighton career records for sets played (430) and matches played (120), topping marks held by former teammate Korie Lebeda (2005-08) ...Senior Sarah Schulze had nine digs and continues to creep closer to 1,000 for her career. She now has 986 career digs ...Creighton set a school record for block assists in a season, as it now has 480. The old mark of 475 was set in 2006 ...Creighton fell to 1-36 all-time against ranked teams.
