Volleyball Semifinals Set After Spalding and Webster Wins
The 2021 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Volleyball Tournament got underway on Thursday night with a pair of quarterfinals matches. #3 Spalding University topped #6 Blackburn College and #5 Webster University knocked off #4 Fontbonne University to advance to the semifinals round on Saturday.
Quarterfinal Game - #3 Spalding defeated #6 Blackburn, 3-1 BOX SCORE
Spalding picked up a 25-23, 25-21, 22-25, 25-14 win over visiting Blackburn to advance to the SLIAC semifinals for the first time since 2016. The Golden Eagles hit .201 as a team with Jayda Branch pacing the team with 17 kills. Samantha Robinson (11 kills) and Hannah Holland (10 kills) also reached double digits. Blackburn hit .138 as a team with Emilie King (14 kills) and Lucy Magnussen (13 kills) leading the Beavers. Spalding was able to put away the Beavers by hitting .364 in the fourth and decisive set, downing 17 kills with just 5 errors on 33 swings. Meanwhile, Blackburn managed a match low 7 kills with 5 errors in the set.
Quarterfinal Game - #5 Webster defeated #4 Fontbonne, 3-0 BOXSCORE
A red hot attack pushed Webster past host Fontbonne 25-19, 25-16, 25-11. The Gorloks hit .303 as a team, increasing their hitting percentage as the match went on; concluding with a .462 percentage in the third set. Webster put down 50 kills while committing just 14 errors. Meanwhile, Fontbonne hit just .066 in the match with 22 kills and 15 errors. Lauren Borik was dominant, putting down 18 kills and hitting .486 in the match with just one error while adding 22 digs. Not to be outdone was the Gorlok defense, recording 6 total blocks. Fontbonne was led by Jadyn Fitzgerald's 8 kills.
Next Up
The SLIAC Volleyball tournament will now move on to Saturday's competition when both the semifinals and championship match will take place at the top-seeded Greenville University in Greenville, Ill. Greenville will face Webster in the day's opening match, at 11 a.m., while #2 seed Westminster College will take on Spalding at 2 p.m. The championship match is set for 6 p.m.
Championship History
Greenville is looking for its second straight, and 7th title, in program history. Westminster meanwhile is seeking its 4th title, last winning in 2019. Spalding has never won a tournament title and is appearing in the semifinals for the fourth time in program history, with their only championship match appearance coming in 2014. Webster has won 12 tournament titles, with its last coming in 2014.
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