PITTSBURGH – La Salle (14-12, 8-6) avenged a 3-2 loss to Duquesne (10-17, 4-10) on Oct. 11 with a 3-0 win over the Dukes on Saturday afternoon at Mt. Lebanon High School. The Explorers outhit the Dukes .396 to .172 in taking the three sets by scores of 25-20, 25-13 and 25-22. The match was the regular season finale for both schools. It was the final home match for seniors Kaitlyn Knurek, Dani Suiter and Liz Wayne. Wayne tied Maria Mosbacher for team high with seven kills, while Suiter finished with 10 assists.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Las Salle hit .378 in taking the first set 25-20. There were four ties early before the Explorers took a 14-10 lead. La Salle reeled off five consecutive points to make it 23-16, before the Dukes rallied to cut it to 23-19 on a Mosbacher kill. Mosbacher had five kills and Wayne added four in the first set during which DU hit .216.
• La Salle led 9-7 before scoring four of the next five points to make it 13-8, forcing a Duquesne timeout. La Salle scored four of five following the break to make it 17-9. Duquesne would get no closer than seven the rest of the way as the Explorers won the set 25-13. La Salle hit .500 in set two.
• Duquesne took its first lead since 2-1 in the second set on a La Salle attack error that made it 6-5. Claire Boe followed with a service ace to give DU a two-point advantage. From that point on, there were four ties and a couple of lead changes before DU scored on a Morgan Kelly kill followed by a Hailey Poling ace to go up 13-11, leading to a La Salle timeout. Duquesne maintained the lead until the Explorers tied it at 16-16. La Salle scored the next point and maintained the lead the rest of the way to win the set 25-22.