ST. LOUIS, Mo. - The UC Irvine women's volleyball team remained undefeated on the year as it took down tournament host Saint Louis, 3-1 (25-19, 25-15, 19-25, 26-24), Saturday afternoon at Chaifetz Arena on the second day of the Marcia E. Hamilton Classic.
 
The 'Eaters improve to 5-0, while the Billikens drop to 0-5.
 
Junior Haley DeSales paced the Anteaters with a match and career-high 21 kills. She hit .486 (21-4-35), while adding eight digs and two aces.
 
Junior Harlee Kekauoha contributed 11 kills (.348), and senior Brianna Montgomery finished with a season-best nine kills and four aces. Sophomore Makayla Wolfe also had a match-high five blocks.
 
Senior libero Luna Tsujimoto anchored the defense with 11 digs as she has now reached double digits in all five matches. Junior Ali Koumelis dished out a season-best 42 assists, directing the UCI offense to a .349 hitting percentage.
 
The 'Eaters held SLU to .184 hitting and owned an 8-to-4 advantage in team blocks.
 
UC Irvine went up 7-4 early in the first set, but Saint Louis proceeded to score the next four points to pull ahead by one. The Anteaters quickly regained the lead, however, as consecutive kills from Montgomery and Wolfe made it 9-8. The two teams then went back-and-forth with seven ties before UCI went on a 7-2 run, capped by a Kekauoha kill, to go on top, 23-18. Back-to-back hitting errors by the Billikens would then end the set in favor of the 'Eaters, 25-19.
 
The Anteaters carried the momentum into set two as they used a 6-0 spurt to take a 12-6 advantage. Montgomery sparked the rally from the service line where she had two aces. UC Irvine never looked back and another late run, which ended with a kill from DeSales, gave the visitors the 25-15 victory.
 
SLU regrouped at the break, racing out to a 4-1 lead in the third frame. The 'Eaters came right back with an Idara Akpakpa kill and a double block by Montgomery/Wolfe, before a Billiken hitting error evened the score at 4-4. The two teams would then trade points until Saint Louis took the lead for good at 7-6. The home team stayed out front by at least two en route to the 25-19 victory. UC Irvine saw its 12-set win streak snapped with its first loss since the season opener at Cal on Aug. 25.
 
The Billikens opened the fourth set with five consecutive aces, and went up by six, before UCI began to chip away, cutting the deficit to 8-7. Saint Louis was able to hold on to the lead and went back on top by four, but the Anteaters eventually knotted the score at 18-18 on Montgomery's fourth ace of the match. They eventually went up 20-19 on a Wolfe ace, and four tie scores would follow before SLU took set point at 24-23. UC Irvine called a timeout and responded with kills from Kekauoha and Montgomery, before a Wolfe/Koumelis block closed out the match at 26-24.
 
Maya Taylor led Saint Louis with 12 kills, while Sien Gallop had 10 kills and six aces.
 
UC Irvine returns to the court at 2:30 p.m. (PT) to take on Illinois State in its final match of the Marcia E. Hamilton Classic.