PITTSBURGH – Duquesne dropped a trio of close sets (25-17, 25-21, 25-23) in falling to Atlantic 10 third-place Saint Louis (15-9, 9-2) on Friday night in a home match at Mt. Lebanon High School. The Dukes (10-15, 4-8) were led by Liz Wayne and Maria Mosbacher with nine kills each. Haley Poling and Dani Suiter paced DU with 18 and 12 assists respectively.

The Dukes will be back in action tomorrow night when they host Dayton at 7:00 p.m. at Mt. Lebanon. DU closes the regular season against La Salle at Mt. Lebanon on Saturday, Nov. 16.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Saint Louis scored six of the last seven points to take the first set 25-17. Neither team led by more than three until SLU took a 20-16 lead forcing a Duquesne timeout. The Billikens scored the next two before a service error made it 22-17. The Billikens hit .500 to .148 for the Dukes in the first set. Morgan Kelly and Liz Wayne had three kills each for DU. SLU had just one error in the opening set.
• The Billikens jumped out to an 8-4 lead to open the second set, before Wayne cut it to 9-8 with a kill following a long rally. DU tied it at 12-12 on a Wayne ace and took its first lead since 2-1 on an SLU attack error that made it 14-13. Saint Louis rallied to take a 17-15 lead as DU called a timeout. A six-point SLU run ended with a Billikens service error that made it 20-15. Duquesne came back to cut it to 20-19 on a block by Wayne and Summer Slade to cut it to 20-19.  SLU reeled of two consecutive points following a timeout to make it 22-19, before Mosbacher ended the run with a kill. DU pulled within two at 23-21, before SLU closed out the set with a Maya Taylor block. Haley Poling had six digs and four assists for the Dukes in set two.
• DU battled back to take an early 5-2 in set three on a Morgan Kelly kill, before the Billikens tied it at 5-5. Wayne ended the brief SLU run with a kill. From that point on there were six ties with neither team leading by more than one until Saint Louis took a 14-12 lead on a Sien Gallop kill. Duquesne scored back-to-back points following a timeout to knot the set at 14-14. SLU led 17-14, before tying it at 17-17 on a Slade ace. DU took a 19-18 lead on a SLU attack error, before SLU answered with three consecutive points to take a 21-19 lead. Kelly had back-to-back kills to tie it at 21-21, forcing a SLU timeout. The Dukes cut the SLU lead to 24-23, but couldn't close as the Billikens ended it with a Maya Taylor kill. Neither team led by more than three in the set that featured 15 ties and seven lead changes.