FULTON, Mo. - The Westminster volleyball team defeated Spalding in five sets tonight in a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference matchup. The Blue Jays improve to 11-7 on the season and 9-2 in SLIAC play.

In the first set Spalding lead 16-10 when the Blue Jays scored seven unanswered points thanks to three kills from Eryka Wanyonyi, two kills from Ashley Kistaitis and a bad set by the Golden Eagles. Kate Rable recorded four assists in the rally. Spalding answered with a four-point rally to go up 20-17 and held on the win the set 25-19.

Westminster fell behind 2-0 in the second set before jumping out to a 6-2 lead. The Blue Jays never lost the lead in the set and added a seven point rally to go up 16-6. Westminster closed out the set with a dominating 25-11 victory.

The third set was another back-and-forth battle with the score bring tied at eight different times in the set. With the score tied at 22 the Blue Jays scored on two Spalding attack errors and won the match 25-22 on a kill by Wanyonyi from Teresa Becker.

Spalding answered with a 25-22 victory of their own in the fourth set to tie the match at 2-2. The Golden Eagles came back from a 19-13 deficit to win the set and force a fifth set.

The Blue Jays took a 8-3 lead in the fifth set and held on take the deciding set 15-9 for a 3-2 match victory. Natalie Needy closed out the match with a kill to give Westminster the win.

Kistaitis led the Blue Jays in both kills (24) and digs (22). Wanyonyi finished with her seventh double-double of the season with 17 kills and 16 digs. Erica Schrader finished the match with 21 digs and Natalie Needy finished with double-digit kills for the first time this season with 12.

The Blue Jays play again tomorrow against Blackburn.