Noah Fries | sports editor

The Duquesne volleyball team traveled to Saint Louis, Missouri, for the second weekend of Atlantic 10 conference play, falling in four sets to Saint Louis Friday before bouncing back with a hard-fought, five-set victory Saturday.

The weekend results brought the Dukes’ record to 12-3 overall and 3-1 in A10 play.

“I think the group is just a hard-nosed group,” Head Coach Steve Opperman said. “They didn’t let the previous day affect the next day. The kids know that some things weren’t clicking. Hats off to Saint Louis. Our kids really just battled.”

Freshman right side hitter Simone Searles continued to be the dominant force for Duquesne, averaging 4.56 points per set en route to winning A10 Rookie of the Week for the third consecutive week and fourth week overall. Searles is the fourth player in program history to earn these honors at least four times in her career.

Searles ranks second in the A10 with a .338 hitting percentage while ranking third in the conference in points per set (4.39) and kills per set (3.82).

Duquesne would jump out to an early lead in the first match of the weekend, riding a series of runs and stout defense (holding the Billikens to a .034 attack percentage) to a 25-16 set win. Five different Dukes would record a kill in the set.

In the second set, Saint Louis would completely flipped the script. The Billikens would record 18 kills to just three errors in the set and hit an impressive .417 to take the set 25-20.

The third stanza would feature back-and-forth volleyball, as the teams would be tied at 14 before Saint Louis would continue to inch away. The Billikins would get two points in a service run while the Dukes could only muster one, pulling away 25-21 and pushing Duquesne to the brink.

The final frame would be all Saint Louis. The Billikens seemed to block everything in the fourth set, forcing 13 hitting errors by Duquesne and holding the Dukes to a -.219 attack percentage — their worst of the season.

Saint Louis would only hit .067 of its own, but wouldn’t need much more to take a 25-17 victory and win its second A10 match of the campaign.

Searles led the team in kills with 19, while junior outside hitter Emersen Schrom would notch 12 kills and a service ace. Graduate libero Delaney McIntosh recorded a team-high 19 digs.

“When we came off the court [Friday], we were all really frustrated with ourselves,” freshman outside hitter Londyn Stone said. “We felt like we beat ourselves. When we came out on Saturday, we were like ‘We’re going to be composed, but we’re going to have the drive that we’re going to win this match.’”

The Dukes appeared to have that drive early in the first set of Saturday’s match, jumping out to a five-point lead midway through the set before closing on a 5-3 run to take a 25-18 set victory. Stone led the charge with four kills in the set.

The second set was categorized by a series of runs on both sides, with 12 different lead changes throughout the stanza. The Dukes would hold set point at 25-24 after a Schrom service ace, but the Billikins would record a kill and back-to-back blocks to steal the set 27-25.

Saint Louis would dominate the third set, hitting .394 and holding the Dukes to a .194 hitting percentage to push Duquesne to the edge once again, winning 25-17.

Duquesne wouldn’t go away, using a dominant 13-3 run in the middle of the set — led by Searles with three kills and two blocks and a service ace from senior middle blocker Jordan Robertson — to take a commanding 21-9 lead. Weathering a 10-1 Billikins run in response, the Dukes would take a 25-21 victory to push the match to the decisive fifth set.

The Dukes would fall behind 7-4 in the fifth set before two kills from Stone and a Schrom kill would tie the set at seven. After the Billikins would go up 12-11, a 4-0 service run from Searles clinched the come-from-behind road win for Duquesne.

Duquesne’s three pin hitters — Schrom (18), Stone (17, tied for career high) and Searles (16) — would account for 51 of the team’s 62 kills. Senior setter Chloe Wilmot orchestrated the offense with 54 assists, while Schrom would tally six service aces. Schrom is currently third in the country in aces per set, tallying 41 aces in 56 sets to date.

“I think one of the big things about our team is that there’s no ceiling for us,” Stone said. “It just keeps getting higher with how great we can be. Whatever I can do for our team to help us be successful is always where my head is at.”

Noah Fries can be reached at friesn@duq.edu