For the second time this season, the William Jewell volleyball team opened a 2-0 lead only to see their opponent rally to take the match. This time it was the Tritons of Missouri-St. Louis who came storming back to give the Cardinals their first home loss of the season by scores of 30-28, 26-24, 21-25, 13-25, 10-15. Jewell falls to 11-13 on the season and 4-7 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. 

In the opener the two teams played nearly deadlocked with Jewell's 19-16 lead being the largest of the set. With the score knotted at 25 a Madeline Johnson kill gave Jewell set point before back-to-back kills from the Tritons put Jewell's back against the wall as they went from nearly ending the set to nearly dropping it. However, another Johnson kill followed by a knock from Leslie Booth flipped the script once more back in the favor of the Cardinals. A kill from UMSL setter Kayla Shane extended the set before back-to-back kills from Booth and Grace Miller finally ended the exciting opener. Jewell came out balanced as Johnson led with five kills while Cunningham and Booth each added four.

Set two also called for extra points but didn't look that way early on as the Cardinals opened up a 7-2 advantage before UMSL crawled back to eventually tie the game at 14. The Tritons looked as though they would pull away, as they strung together five consecutive points on four errors from the Cards, to take a commanding 19-15 lead. UMSL returned the favor however, committing four errors of their own to go along with kills from Miller and Booth allowing Jewell to storm back from down four to up one at 21-20. Three errors from UMSL's Selena Nolte and a Cunningham kill helped Jewell to finally close the set 26-24. 

From there things went down hill for the Cardinals as the Tritons pulled ahead 20-16 in set three on four attack errors. Jewell showed some fight tying the game at 20 but UMSL's Lexi Rogers took over scoring three of the next five points to win the set 25-21.

In set four Jewell struggled early and often, hitting just .027 while UMSL found their offensive rhythm at .278 as the Cardinals fell 25-13. 

Set five started well for Jewell as Kennedy Ruckh recorded an ace followed by two UMSL errors to give the Cards an early 3-2 lead. The Tritons didn't go quietly however as they scored six of the next eight points to take an 8-5 advantage. The Cardinals pulled back within one at 8-7 but could get no closer as UMSL used three kills and three Jewell errors to close the set 15-10. 

Defensively, libero Olivia Tolberd shined along the back row recording a career-high 37 digs, with double-digits in both the first and fourth sets. Tolberd's total is just two shy of the school record for a single match. Codi Winslow added 15 digs as Jewell went over the century mark fo rthe first time this season. 

Cunningham led the Cardinals offensively with 12 kills on a .175 clip to go along with four blocks. Booth added 12 kills while Johnson chipped in nine and three blocks. Freshman Olivia Johnston recorded her first career double-double with 11 kills and a career-high 15 digs. 

Next weekend Jewell welcomes in No. 16 Lewis University on Friday evening at 7:00 p.m. followed by Wisconsin Parkside on Saturday afternoon at 3:00 p.m.