EVANSTON, ILL. ? The learning process for a young team in sports is often a slow and sometimes painful lesson in accomplishment, failure and triumph. For the Drake volleyball team the lesson is one which they hope is close to turning the corner into accomplishment and triumph as Saint Louis flustered the Bulldogs in a 3-0 (30-17, 30-14, 30-25) setback on Friday evening (Sept. 14) at the Wildcat Classic in Evanston, Ill.

The loss was the sixth straight for Drake, who now stands at 2-8 on the year, while Saint Louis improves its ledger to 10-2.

The Billikens raced out to a 5-2 advantage in game one before the Bulldogs rallied back to square the score at six on a pair of block assists from freshmen Alisa DeBerg Roth (Hudson, Iowa) and Mikayla Sims (Waterloo, Iowa/East). Saint Louis fired back a salvo of its own registering eight of the next 10 points to assume a 14-8 advantage, a lead it didn't relinquish.

The Billikens continued to exert their will in the second stanza leading by as many as 16 points en route to a 30-14 victory. The Bulldogs garnered two kills apiece from senior Samantha Nelson (Ceresco, Neb./Raymond Central), sophomore Emily Madden (Van Meter, Iowa/Adel DeSoto Minburn) and Sims in the game.

Coming out inspired to start the third game, Drake erased an early deficit to assume its first lead of the match on an attack error by Lauren Christman. A pair of kills off the hands of Madden and one courtesy of Sims stretched the advantage to 10-7.

The momentum was short-lived as the Billikens registered three unanswered tallies to even the frame at 10. The two sides followed suite by exchanging the next 10 points before Saint Louis snapped the string with a Megan Boken kill regain the lead, 16-15. Drake sparked a mini-comeback and cut the deficit to two (27-25) on block assists from freshmen Nicole Brown (Appleton, Wis./Appleton) and DeBerg Roth but the Billikens responded with three unanswered points to close the game and the match, 30-25.

Saint Louis finished the contest registering a .343 attack mark, while holding the Bulldogs to a .065 hitting percentage.

Striking the ball at a match-best .556 clip, Bridget Fonke led all players with 17 kills. Sutton Lasater joined her in double-figures with 10. Bys directed Drake with team-highs in kills (11) and digs (8), while sophomore Chelsea Lauersdorf (Watertown, Wis./Watertown) contributed 27 assists.

Saint Louis bettered the Bulldogs in kills (48-32), assists (41-31), service aces (11-3), digs (31-30) and blocks (11.0-4.0).

Drake concludes its participation at the Wildcat Classic on Saturday (Sept. 15) as the Bulldogs face Western Michigan at Noon.