EAST PEORIA, Ill. – For the tenth season in a row the Greyhounds advance past the first round of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament, this time with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-23, 25-18) sweep over Missouri-St. Louis Thursday in the Eastside Centre. All-GLVC first teamer Hailey Brown finished the match with 15 kills, 17 digs, 5 block assists and hit .394.

"Our focus was to control what we could control – our passing, our serving – just our side of the net," said Brown, following the victory. "We knew what they were going to do, but controlling our side would ultimately be in our favor."

The Greyhounds (19-9) represented the top seed in the East by handling the West's four-seed in straight sets, but the match offered three hard-fought games from both sides of the net.

UIndy led most of the opening set, not looking back after taking a 7-6 lead. UMSL (16-12) hung tough the entire frame, but the Hounds won 25-22 to take an early match lead. As a team, the Hounds hit .333 with 15 kills and 4 errors on 34 attempts.

Set two went from a game of runs to a tooth-and-nail fight down the stretch. The Tritons used an 8-1 run to open up an 8-4 edge early, but the Greyhounds responded with a 12-3 spurt of their own to regain the lead. Toward the end of the set the teams traded points until it was knotted at 23-23. Consecutive kills from Kacee Salyers and Olivia Current earned the Hounds a 25-23 victory and 2-0 match advantage.

The Greyhounds fended off the Tritons from start to finish in the third frame, holding at least a four-point margin once they gained a 7-3 lead. Arielle Knafel recorded 5 of her 11 total kills in the match-clinching final set.

UIndy hit over .300 in two of the three sets, finishing the match with a .252 mark (46-14-127) to UMSL's .110 (38-22-145). The Greyhounds also finished with more digs (72 to 57) and more total blocks (10 to 7).

The Hounds' one service error was the fewest the team has recorded this season.

Brown led the squad with 15 kills – 5 in each set – and hit .394 (15-2-33), her third-highest attack percentage with 15 or more kills this season. Her 17 digs were the second most this season and signaled her 13th kill/dig double-double.

The performance was reminiscent of her three-match tear through the 2013 GLVC Tournament, when she racked up 53 kills over the weekend as the Greyhounds captured the conference championship.

"Everybody is in the gym there watching, and you just want to put on a show," Brown said when asked about her postseason play. "You know UIndy is always going to put on the show."

Knafel led UIndy with 18 digs, also her second best total of the season and along with the 11 kills marked her seventh double-double. Kimberly Trojan (11 digs) and Salyers (11) also tallied double-digit digs for the Greyhounds.

Setter Meghan Binkerd dished 39 assists and recorded 10 digs, good for her team-leading 18th double-double.

"Meghan has done an outstanding job to get me the ball perfectly every single time," Brown noted. "If our pass is there, our set is there, and I think that helps me a lot."

Becca Lira disrupted the UMSL attack with one solo and five blocks assists, and Current added a solo block and three block assists.  

UIndy faces East division three-seed McKendree in the semifinal Friday at 4:00 p.m. ET. The Bearcats defeated West two-seed Rockhurst 3-1 (25-20, 25-21, 23-25, 25-23) in the opening round.

In their lone meeting this season, McKendree bested UIndy 3-2 (18-25, 25-20, 21-25, 28-26, 15-12) in the Ruth Lilly Center back on October 3.