Blocking ends Griffins' four-game losing streak

St. Louis, Mo. - Fontbonne women's volleyball rounded tonight to defeat Lincoln Christian University (LCU) 3-1. The Griffins snapped a four-game losing streak and got revenge on the Red Lions after losing earlier in the season 3-0. Fontbonne will hit the road for eight games and only return to St. Louis on October 11 to host Blackburn College at 7 p.m.

Fontbonne trailed 12-5 in the opening dual before scoring five points to pull within two before LCU won 25-19. The Griffins led for most of the second set but the Red Lions tied the game 22-22 until Fontbonne closed out with a 25-23 win. 

Fontbonne was slow to get going in the third set as the Red Lions led 8-0 until they mounted a comeback to trail by 10-8. The hosts trailed 16-12 until eight straight points put the Griffins up 20-16 and they secured the 25-20 third-set victory. 

Fourth set action favored the Griffins who averaged .265 in hitting, the game high. LCU tied the game 19-19 but Fontbonne sealed the match win on a 6-2 run. 

Senior Holly Richter had a dominating middle two sets. The middle blocker notched three block assists in the second set and one solo and one assist in the third set. Her huge solo block gave the Griffins a 19-16 edge before serving an ace to end the set. Richter totaled five block assists and one solo block while her teammates Kersten McDonough and Emma Seiz each tallied four total blocks. Seiz recorded two solo blocks while McDonough notched one. In total, the Griffins tallied 11.5 blocks.

McDonough led the Griffins with 15 kills while Kristina Eason tallied 14 kills and hit .306. Senior Bailey Benes tallied six kills on 12 attempts as she hit .500 including a hard hit down the line to give Fontbonne a 12-8 lead in the fourth set. Eason and Benes both hit .500 in the fourth set alone with five and four kills respectively. Mariana Rogers notched 23 digs in the win while Lynsey Wehrenberg assisted 20 times.