WHO: Women's Volleyball at Saint Louis
WHERE: Chaifetz Pavilion, St. Louis, Mo.
FINAL SCORE: Saint Louis 3, Mason 0
KEY PLAYERS: Sydney Fanoga – 9 kills (team-high), 1 dig, 1 block; Tiffany Clarke – 9 kills; Bailey Williams – 7 kills, 12 digs, 2 blocks; Catie Espinoza – 16 digs (match-high); Jessie Greenslade – 3 kills, 3 service aces (match-high)

ST. LOUIS – George Mason University's women's volleyball team gave it all it had, but could not find a way to stop Saint Louis' senior Danielle Rygelski, who put in an NCAA-best performance and led the Billikens with 31 kills in a straight-set victory at home against Mason.

MATCH NOTES

-Once again this season the Patriots did well to share the credit in attack as senior opposite hitter Tiffany Clarke and junior middle blocker Sydney Fanoga finished with team-high nine kills each. Freshman outside hitter Bailey Williams was three kills shy of a double-double after finishing with 12 digs as well, while freshman middle blocker Katrina Santos tied her career-high of six kills and contributed team-high three blocks. Sophomore libero Catie Espinoza finished with a match-high 16 digs for the Patriots.

-Rygelski was everywhere on the court for the Billikens, but once again her impact was most felt on the offensive end, where she grabbed 31 of SLU's 48 kills in the match. The senior also had a team-high 10 digs and her six blocks tied with Lauren Mershon for most in the match. Taylor Paulson followed Rygelski with five kills.

 -It took Mason two timeouts – the second coming at 16-8 Saint Louis – to start playing like it did last weekend, but the Patriots finally started putting strings of points together in the opening set and went on their best 7-1 run – which featured three kills by Santos, two by Clarke, and one each from Fanoga and Williams – to come within three at 18-15. Coming out of the resulting timeout, Saint Louis managed to kill Mason's momentum with straight points, but the Patriots were not ready to go away and came within three once again with a kill by senior outside hitter Jessie Greenslade, 21-18. Greenslade picked up another kill several plays later, but it was followed by two from Saint Louis which won the opening set for the Billikens, 25-19.

-The Patriots entered the second set unaffected by the course of the first and got off to a great start with Greenslade forcing a SLU timeout with an ace that put her team up by six points, 9-3. Rather than “icing” her, the Billikens' timeout allowed the senior to retain her focus and the play resumed with two more aces from Greenslade before a rare attack error by Rygelski increased Mason's lead to its largest margin, 12-3. A drastic switch of momentum then limited the Patriots to only three points in the next 14 plays – a kill by Clarke and two SLU attack errors – to cut the advantage to one as the teams entered mid-set, 16-15. A block by Fanoga and Williams on Monica Loftus kept the Billikens at bay for the moment, but after three unsuccessful attempts Saint Louis managed to tie the score at 19 all, also with a block. The Rygelski kill that followed put the Billikens in front for the first time in the set at 20-19 and forced a Mason timeout. After Santos neutralized that lead right away to make the set a game to five, the teams exchanged 2-0 runs on kills by their top scorers in the match – Paulson and Rygelski, respectively, for Saint Louis and Clarke and Fanoga for Mason – for the fourth tied score of the set, 23-23. The Billikens' final timeout produced a service error by Mason and then Mackenzie Long found Rygelski, who made no mistake and picked up another kill for 25-23 to send her team into the intermission with a two-set lead.

-Mason again started the third set with a 3-0 lead, but several unsuccessful attack attempts allowed Saint Louis to go on a 6-1 run and grab a two-point lead, 6-4. With the teams locked at 9-9 later on, Hipsher's only kill of the match started another 3-0 run by head coach Jackie Simpson-Kirr's team that also featured two attack errors by SLU. This time around, Mason held the lead for a little longer, but back-to-back kills from Rygelski inspired another run by the Billikens, who tied the score at 17 all. With neither team able to take more than a one-point lead going into the final stages of the set, Greenslade gave Mason its first set point with a kill for 24-23, forcing the Saint Louis coach to exercise his final timeout. It was not Mason's day, however, and Rygelski neutralized all four of the Patriots' set points before picking up a kill for Saint Louis' decisive go-ahead point and assisting Mershon for the match-winning block at 31-29.  

 STAT BREAKDOWN

-Each team had 115 attack attempts in the match, Mason hitting .139 off theirs compared to Saint Louis' .252 mark.

-Santos had the only solo block of the match early in the first set, but overall the Billikens won the battle at the net, 10-4.

-Six digs separated both teams at the end of the contest, 49-43 in favor of SLU.

POST-MATCH QUOTES

“Although we had a slow start to the match, I was happy to see our group bounce back and make the second and third sets into battles. Our team is starting to learn how to fight for every point. It did not result in a win tonight, but it was a great step forward in terms of competitive value for our program.” – Mason's head coach Jackie Simpson-Kirr

NEXT ON THE COURT

Mason will complete the road trip on Sunday afternoon with a trip to the reigning A-10 champion Dayton. First serve is at 1 p.m. EST.