Blue Demons Take Down Saint Louis, Sweep DePaul Invitational

Saturday, September 10

Chicago, Ill.

7:00 P.M. CT

DePaul University

Saint Louis

Blue Demons Take Down Saint Louis, Sweep DePaul Invitational

9/10/2022 10:46:00 PM | WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

DePaul picks up 3-1 win over Billikens behind Pressly's 15 kills and 23 digs

CHICAGO – DePaul volleyball put an exclamation point on the weekend with a 3-1 victory over Saint Louis on Saturday night at McGrath-Phillips Arena. The Blue Demons swept through the competition at the 2022 DePaul Invitational to improve to 3-6 on the season and 3-0 at home.

Set scores of the match were: 28-26, 23-25, 25-23, 25-16.

Jill Pressly put a bow on a fantastic weekend with 15 kills and a career-high 23 digs. Hanna Karl chipped in her second double-double of the season with 11 kills and 10 digs. Taylor Underwood put down 10 kills and totaled four blocks.

Middle blocker Sara Griffith posted a career-high seven blocks while junior libero Rachel Krasowski posted 27 digs in three sets of action.

Maggie Jones dished out 21 assists while Ashley Cudiamat tallied 19 helpers and collected seven digs.

The Blue Demons totaled a season-high 13 blocks and held the Billikens to a .113 hitting percentage.

Pressly was named DePaul Invitational MVP while Krasowski and Underwood also landed on the All-Tournament Team.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
Set One: DePaul fell behind 9-6 in the early going of the first set before the Blue Demons embarked on a 7-2 run to tie the set at 19 and force a SLU timeout. The Billikens answered with five of the next six points to reclaim the lead at 21-19. With Griffith behind the service line, the Blue Demons fended off four set points before a Bailey Nelson kill followed up with a Nelson and Aly Kindelberger block gave DePaul a 28-26 set one win.

Set Two: The two squads swung back and forth in the second set and saw the score evened at 22 on a Billiken's attack error. Kindelberger registered a kill to give DePaul the lead before a three-point spurt from Saint Louis evened the match at 1-1.

Set Three: The Blue Demons opened a 20-11 lead in the third set before Saint Louis went on a 12-3 run to come within a point at 22-21. An Underwood kill and Billikens ball handling error gave DePaul set point but the Blue Demons couldn't capitalize until Karl terminated from the outside to give DePaul a 25-23 victory and 2-1 lead on the match.

Set Four: DePaul carried the momentum into the fourth set, running out to an 11-3 lead on a Karl kill. A Kindelberger solo block forced Saint Louis to burn their second timeout before Underwood slammed home a kill from the right side to clinch the match for DePaul.

From Head Coach Marie Zidek: So proud of this team and their grit this weekend. It took incredible effort and resiliency to get into the win column. Unreal effort from this group. So proud of DePaul volleyball and to do it in front of our alumni and home crowd makes it so much sweeter.

Up Next: The Blue Demons will make the short trip over to UIC Sept. 16-17 for the Chicago Cup. DePaul will face Northwestern on Friday at 4 p.m. before squaring off against Loyola Chicago and UIC on Saturday at 10am and 7pm, respectively.