ST. LOUIS - After four-straight wins, all of which were sweeps, the Truman State University volleyball team had its hands full with Missouri-St. Louis for the second time this season on Saturday afternoon under the Gateway Arch. The Tritons defeated the Bulldogs in five sets back on Sept. 9 and the second time around saw the same result inside the Mark Twain Building.

Truman (11-12, 4-7 GLVC) fell one game back below the .500 mark while Missouri-St. Louis (16-6, 6-5 GLVC) has now been winners in five in a row and six of its last seven matches. Jasmine Brown continued her stellar play as she led the team in kills with 16, reached double-figures in that category for the third match in a row and the 14th time this season. Brown's career-high 24 digs gave her a 10th double-double for the year and she has been on a tear defensively. In fact, in her three seasons before this, the senior reached 10 digs in a match just three times and has already done it on 11 occasions in 2017.

Speaking of personal bests, Emma Berthold (pictured) sent home a career high 12 kills to just four errors on 33 swings for a .242 hitting percentage. Once again aiding the offense was Savvy Hughes with 43 assists and she has had at least 40 in that category five times this season. The junior setter also had 10 digs to go with those 43 assists to give her 10 double-doubles on the year. Defensively for the Bulldogs, they were led by a quartet of players with at least 10 digs including Brown (24), Lauren Wacker (23), Hughes (10), and Meghan Gasper (10). Above the net, Holly Hildebrand was the ringleader with seven blocks, one of which was a solo stuff.

How it happened...

• The first set of the match was the closest one of the day as it saw a combined six ties and three lead changes.
• UMSL scored the first two points before Truman's 5-1 run put it ahead by two, 5-3.
• However, the Tritons answered with four straight and were back ahead by two, 7-5.
• After two more deadlocks at 7-7 and 8-8, the home team scored 10 of a possible 13 points to take a seven-point advantage, 18-11.
• The visitors then mounted a furious comeback with a 14-4 spurt over the course of the rest of the set to win it by three, 25-22.
• The hosts proceeded to win the second set, 25-17, and the third set, 25-20, but the Bulldogs didn't go away just like that.
• In the fourth, UMSL tallied five of the first six points before Truman battled back and eventually tied it up at 8-8.
• After another deadlock at 9-9, the Purple and White rattled off seven of the next eight points to go ahead by six, 16-10.
• From that point on, the home team did all it could to get back in it and was within two, 21-19, before the visitors scored four straight to seal it, 25-19.
• The fifth and deciding set was all about UMSL early on as it scored seven of the first 10 points while Truman used a pair of timeouts to try and stem the tide.
• The Bulldogs were able to slim the margin to two on five different occasions, but the Tritons held on for the set victory and match win in five sets.

Next up, Truman will begin a stretch of seven home matches in a row starting with Indianapolis on Friday, Oct. 27 beginning at 7 p.m.

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