SLU beat Dayton in straight sets, 25-15, 27-25, 25-19, to win the Atlantic 10 Conference women’s volleyball title and assure themselves of a spot in the NCAA tournament for the second time in three years.

SLU trailed only in the second set, and took the first set fairly handily.

“Last year, we had a bitter season,” senior Lauren Christman said, “losing to Xavier in five sets (in the semifinals) after leading two games and wanted to make it our goal to win the tournament, win the conference, work really hard and pull it off and we had a lot of determination and work ethic going into the game.”

SLU went undefeated in the regular season in Atlantic 10 play, and then won both matches in the tournament, something that hasn’t been done in the league since 1997.

“We definitely wanted to go out with purpose and prove a point and let them know we’re working hard and building this program up,” Christman said. “We’re doing it.”

Bridget Fonke, who was named the tournament’s MVP, had 16 kills for SLU, as did Sammi McCloud. Christman had seven. SLU had a .376 hitting percentage. The main reason it fell behind in the second set was because of poor serving.

The way college volleyball is set up, SLU will have two matches this week at a tournament in Tennessee before the NCAA field is announced next week. It will be interesting to see where SLU ends up. With an RPI of 9, they would be in line to host first and second round matches at Chaifetz, but can’t do it because the building is booked. So that means they likely will be a high seed that plays on the road, but where that would be is murky. SLU could be sent to Illinois, but the Illini will also be a high seed and the NCAA shouldn’t put two really good teams in the same early round bracket.