Box Score Rolla, Mo. - The Missouri S&T Lady Miners dug themselves into an early hole in each of the first two games and couldn't quite recover in a 3-0 (19-25, 18-25, 22-25) loss to Drury on Friday evening at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building in Rolla.

In the opening set S&T (6-23, 3-11 GLVC) started off by making six errors enabling the Panthers (11-15, 7-7 GLVC) to get out to an early 6-1 advantage. The Lady Miners rallied getting to within two on three different occasions but wouldn't get any closer as Drury began to slowly pull away to win the set. After the slow start S&T rebounded to finish with 12 kills to just 11 for the Panthers but made eight errors, only two after the start, to just four for Drury.

The beginning of game two was the same as the start of game one with the Lady Miners struggling on the offensive end committing a pair of attack errors and a ball handling error as the Panthers got off to another fast start. S&T began to chip away at the lead getting to within 6-4, but a 7-3 run by Drury pushed the lead back to six and it wouldn't look back building its lead to as many as 10 points. The Lady Miners got no closer than six points the rest of the way as the Panthers took a 2-0 lead.

Drury got off to another quick start in game three but unlike the first two sets S&T rallied to tie and eventually take its first lead of the night as part of a 5-0 run highlighted by a pair of service aces and a kill from Danielle Kracl (Omaha, Neb./Burke). The Panthers regrouped though answering back with a 7-1 run of its own to retake the lead at 15-12. The Lady Miners hung tough the rest of the way sticking within a couple of points but were unable to overtake the Panthers lss they held on for the victory.

Julie Meyer (Marthasville, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) finished the night with 11 kills to lead the way for S&T while Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) and Kracl had six kills apiece. Lynsey Jorgensen (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh) finished the night with 3.5 blocks, Kracl had 17 set assists and Bridget Williams (Topeka, Kan./Hayden) had 16 digs.

The Lady Miners return home for a match against Rockhurst beginning at 3 p.m. tomorrow afternoon at Bullman.