ST. CHARLES, Mo. - After being rerouted to St. Charles and the campus of Lindenwood University because of the potential threat from Hurricane Irma, the Truman State University volleyball team faced St. Mary's (Texas) and No. 9 Augustana (S.D.) on Friday afternoon. The Bulldogs swept the Rattlers before falling in four sets to the nationally-ranked Vikings.

Truman 3, St. Mary's 0
Just to prove how much Truman was in control of this match, the score was deadlocked just four times without a single lead change throughout. In the first set, the Bulldogs went ahead 2-0 right away and led by as many as eight in the early going, 16-8. That 24th point came in the midst of a 7-1 run for the Purple and White before St. Mary's tallied seven of the next nine points to cut the margin back to three, 18-15. The Rattlers kept the pressure on as they eventually slimmed the deficit to just two, 22-20, but Truman stood tall, though, and scored three of the final four points to win the set, 25-21.

The second set saw a similar start for Truman as it scored the first two points and in a blink of an eye, was up 8-2, which forced St. Mary's to use a timeout. The breather didn't see any real immediate impact for the Rattlers as the Bulldogs pushed their lead to nine, 18-9, with a 4-1 spurt. St. Mary's didn't go away quietly, though, and used a 10-4 run to pull within three, 22-19. After that, the Rattlers were never closer than three points as the Bulldogs won the set, 25-20.

The third set, despite the four ties, turned out to be the most lopsided of them all. The four ties came at 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, and 9-9 before Truman opened up the floodgates. Once it was 9-9, the Bulldogs scored six points in a row to make it 15-9 and didn't look back. From that point until the Purple and White had sealed the three-set victory, the margin was never smaller than five points and Truman had a lead as big as 12 when it was 24-12 and 25-13.

Statistically, there were five Bulldogs with at least seven kills including Jocelynn Livingston (8), Claire Viviano (8), Natalie Brimeyer (7), Holly Hildebrand (7), and Jasmine Brown (7). The offense ran through Savvy Hughes with her 29 assists while both her and Lauren Wacker each sent home three service aces. Defensively, Wacker was in double-figures for digs with 10 and Brimeyer came down with three block assists.

No. 9 Augustana 3, Truman 1
The first set was the tightest one of the match as it saw a combined eight ties and four lead changes. In the early going, neither team led by more than two points until Augustana had begun to gather some momentum, went on an 11-4 run and was ahead by five, 16-11. Truman talked a timeout to talk things over. However, from that point until the end of the set, the Bulldogs were never closer than four points to the Vikings and dropped the set by eight, 25-17.

Early in the second set, the Purple and White were out to prove themselves as they had leads of 6-2 and 9-5 right away. However, Augustana proceeded to score seven of the next eight points to go up by two, 12-10. Once the Vikings had taken over the lead, they never relinquished it for the rest of the set and led by as many as seven on a couple of occasions including 20-13 and 21-14.

For the second set, the Bulldogs scored the first three points before taking leads of 6-1, 9-3 and 11-4. After that 15th point, the Vikings registered five of the next six scores to cut the margin to three, 12-9. After that though, it was complete domination by the Bulldogs as they never let their lead get smaller than three, led by as many as 11, 24-13, and at one point, scored eight of a possible nine points. The Purple and White won the set 25-16 and looked to tie things up in the fourth.

In the fourth, neither of the two squads led by more than three until Augustana used a 7-1 spurt to go ahead by eight, 19-11. After that, Truman was never closer than five points from tying it, dropped the set 25-19, and the match in four sets.

Leaders for the Bulldogs included Brimeyer (13 kills), Viviano (11 kills), Hughes (34 assists), Emma Berthold (two blocks), and Wacker (22 digs).

Next up, Truman will stay in St. Charles on Saturday to face GLVC foe, Missouri-St. Louis, at 2 p.m. and West Texas A&M at 7 p.m.

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