ST. LOUIS - George Washington and Xavier advanced to the semifinals of the 2008 Atlantic 10 Conference Volleyball Championship on Friday evening at Chaifetz Pavilion in St. Louis. The No. 3 seeded Colonials downed Fordham 3-0 and will take on No. 2 seed Dayton on Saturday, Nov. 22 in a 5:30 p.m.(CT) match. Xavier, the No. 4 seed, rallied to edge Temple 3-2 and will take on host and No. 1 seed Saint Louis in an 8 p.m. (CT) match on Saturday.

In the first match of the tourney, No. 3 George Washington swept No. 6 Fordham. Set scores were 25-22, 25-19, 25-7. Fordham put down two kills and scored the first three points of the match to take the early lead in set one. GW scored three straight to pull into a 5-5 tie. Fordham held a one-point margin until the set was tied 10-10. The Colonials took their first lead of the evening at 11-10 on a Rams' hitting error. GW still led 16-15 and charged out to a 19-15 lead. The Colonials still had a four-point lead, but the Rams forged a tie at 21-21. At 22-22, the Colonials scored three straight to take the set. Liz Moult put down a kill, and Fordham suffered a hitting error. At set point, Leah Hill finished with a kill for a 25-22 win. The Colonials finished with a .341 hitting percentage, while the Rams were at .297. Moult had six kills on 10 swings without an error for GW.

The Colonials scored three consecutive points to move out to a 4-1 lead in the second set. The Rams chipped away at the margin and forged a tie at 6-6. GW rebuilt a two-point lead and was still up 13-11 before consecutive kills pushed the lead to 15-11. The Rams closed to 16-14, but the Colonials answered with three straight tallies to take a 19-14 advantage. Fordham pulled back within 19-16, but GW took charge with four straight. Katie Butz began the run with a kill, and the Rams had a hitting error. After a kill by Hill, Butz finished off with her second kill of the run. At set point, a Fordham service error closed out the score at 25-19. The Colonials again hit over .300 with a .344 attack percentage, while the Rams managed a .156 mark.

Set three was tied 2-2 before the Colonials scored three straight for a 5-2 lead. After the Rams had a kill, GW reeled off nine straight points to sprint out to a 14-3 lead. Fordham finally terminated a ball to end the GW outburst. GW held a 17-7 lead but closed the match with eight consecutive points for a 25-7 win. The Colonials had 11 kills on 19 attempts and just one error for a .526 hitting percentage, while the Rams only had six kills and were at -.133.

For the Colonials, Butz had 14 kills and hit .591, while Moult notched 10 kills and hit .409 in the match. Hill added 10 kills and tied for match high honors with nine digs. Alyssa Valentine handed out 37 assists to direct the GW attack. Jolanda Gunning-Snowing led Fordham with nine kills, while Kailee May led the Rams with eight digs. Katherine Burrell finished with 20 assists. The Colonials hit .366 for the match, their third-best mark of the season, while the Rams were at a .121 hitting mark. GW finished with 42 digs to 34 for Fordham. The Rams notched five solo blocks to finish with 7.0 team blocks to 4.0 stuffs for the Colonials. The Colonials are now 19-10, while the Rams are 18-16.

Match two between No. 4 seed Xavier and No. 5 Temple, saw the Musketeers rally for a 3-2 victory. Set scores were 23-25, 25-23, 17-25, 25-18, 15-10. The Musketeers scored the first three points of the match and held a 5-3 edge before the Owls answered with three straight points to take their first lead of the night at 6-5. Temple was still up by one at 11-10 before reeling off three consecutive points to build a 14-11 margin. The Owls still were up 15-13 and had two straight kills to stretch the lead to 17-13. Xavier inched back into the set and closed to 18-16. Temple steadied itself and pushed back out to a four-point lead at 21-17. XU then scored four of the next five points to trim the deficit to just one at 22-21. The teams traded points until Patricia Vernon put down a kill for a 25-23 Owls win. The Owls hit .342 in the set while Xavier was at a .256 mark.

For the second straight set, the Musketeers scored the first three points of the set. The Owls scored three of the next four points to close to 4-3. XU responded with another 3-0 run to take a 7-3 advantage. Xavier went up 11-6 on a service ace, and enjoyed the advantage until 17-12. The Owls used three kills during a 4-1 burst to cut the gap to 18-16. The Musketeers held onto the lead until a kill by Temple's Cayleigh Ashman tied the set at 21-21. The set was tied at 23-23 until XU scored the last two points on consecutive kills by Lauren Kaminsky to end the game 25-23 for Xavier.

Temple was the team that got off to the quick start in set three as the Owls scored four of the first five points. After a Xavier kill put the score at 4-2, the Owls four scored straight points to surge to an 8-2 lead. The Musketeers slowly cut into the Temple lead and drew to 13-11 on a block. Ashman had a kill to begin a 5-1 run by the Owls for an 18-12 advantage. Xavier never got closer than six, and a block by Temple ended the set 25-17. Temple enjoyed a strong hitting set with 14 kills and a .440 hitting percentage.

Xavier led set four 5-3 then reeled off three straight points for an 8-3 advantage. The Musketeers still held a 10-6 margin and scored four of the next five points to jump to a 14-7 cushion. Yun Yi Zhang picked up a kill for Temple, but XU scored three more points in a row. The Musketeers eventually built a double-digit lead, but the Owls made one more charge. Down 20-12, the Owls put down three straight kills to cut the deficit to 20-15. Xavier did not allow Temple to get any closer, and a kill by Shannon Voors ended the set 25-18.

In the decisive fifth set, the Owls were up 3-2 and scored two straight for a 5-2 lead. XU was still down 7-5 but reeled off four straight points. Voors had a kill for the Musketeers, and the Owls committed three straight hitting errors as XU surged to a 9-7 lead. Temple finally got a kill from Ashman, but Xavier added on three unanswered points on two kills and another Temple error for a 12-8 advantage. Chelsea Campbell started the run with a kill, and Temple hit a ball into the net. Kelly Ruth's kill handed XU the four-point advantage. Zhang slowed the XU run with a kill, but a kill and a service ace pushed the Musketeers to match point. Zhang notched one more kill for Temple, but Hillary Otte hit a ball off the Temple block to end the match 15-10.

Ruth led Xavier with 16 kills and added a team-high four blocks. Campbell added 14 kills, while Otte added 10 kills. Claire Paskiewicz led XU with 18 digs, while Megan Hellman added 16. Zhang topped Temple with a match-high 20 kills, and Ashman added 10 kills. Ariel Pierre posted a match-best 21 digs, while Jacqueline Cowden finished with nine blocks. Xavier finished the match hitting .299, including .400 in the final set. Temple managed to hit .267 but managed only a .056 kill percentage in the fifth set. The Owls enjoyed an advantage in the block with 12.0 team blocks, while Xavier had 6.5. The Musketeers are now 16-13, while the Owls stand at 15-14.