Box Score (Rolla, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners fought hard but came up short in its 3-1 (16-25, 25-22, 16-25, 28-30) loss to Rockhurst on Friday evening at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building in Rolla. Julie Meyer and the Hawks Maggie McGovern matched each other with a match-high 21 kills.

In the opening set the Lady Miners (7-17, 3-5 GLVC) had no answer for the Rockhurst (12-9, 5-2 GLVC) offense as it hit nearly 50 percent (18 kills/three errors/31 total attacks). McGovern, Nicci Hartley, Emily Levy and Katy Hernandez combined for 16 of the 18 kills. S&T finished the frame with 13 kills in 40 chances but committed six errors. The Hawks broke the game open early with a 5-1 run extending its 4-3 lead to 9-4 and never looked back en route to the 25-16 win.

After a couple of early ties the Lady Miners began to establish control in the second set building an 8-3 lead, forcing a Rockhurst timeout. After the timeout it trimmed the lead to 8-7 before the Lady Miners scored four of the next six points pushing the advantage to 12-9. The Hawks would get within a pair again before Meyer and Lynsey Jorgensen (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh) sparked S&T recording three straight kills at one stretch extending the lead to 18-14. Rockhurst though answered back scoring four straight of its own to tie things at 18 all and forced the Lady Miners to call timeout.

After the brief stoppage Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) recorded a kill to give S&T the lead back but Hartley came right back with a kill of her own to things back up at 19. Kaci Herron (Jonesboro, Ark./Jonesboro) recorded a kill on the next play giving the Lady Miners the lead back sparking a run as Danielle Kracl (Omaha, Neb./Burke) dropped in three straight service aces for a 23-19 lead. Rockhurst closed the gap to two but an attack error by Levy and a kill by Meyer ended the set 25-22 and evened the match up 1-1.

The Hawks slightly outhit S&T in the frame by a .250-to-.237 margin but the Lady Miners had 14 kills against 12 for Rockhurst.

The third stanza saw four ties and four lead changes early on before the Hawks went on a 6-2 run to extending a 9-7 lead to 15-9. From that point it was all Rockhurst as it extended the lead to 21-12 and cruised home for the 25-16 win. The Hawks had only 11 kills in the set but took advantage of seven S&T attack errors and three service errors in the frame.

The fourth and final set was the most entertaining of the night as there were 20 ties and 11 lead changes and neither side led by more than two points during any stretch of the set. The Lady Miners held a 21-19 advantage late in the set before the Hawks came back to tie it at 21 all. Rockhurst took advantage of an error by Kracl to take its first lead of the set at 22-21. S&T responded on the next play when Samantha Klump (Ash Grove, Mo./Homeschooled) and Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) combined to block McGovern then Levy committed an error to give the Lady Miners a 23-22 lead. McGovern and Hernandez recorded back-to-back kills to set up match point for the Hawks, but a service error by McGovern kept the set going.

The Lady Miners retook the lead on a kill by Meyer setting up their first set point but Costello couldn't get the ensuing serve in and it was tied back up at 25. Meyer again gave S&T the lead with her final kill of the night but couldn't close out the set as Bekebrede hit one out of play to tie it back up at 26.

Rockhurst regained the lead on a kill by Boomie Williams setting up its second match point but Jorgensen kept the Lady Miners alive with a kill to tie it back up at 27 all. S&T regained the lead on the next point when Klump stuffed Hernandez to give it its third set point of the frame. The Hawks again tied things up on the next play on a kill by Hartley then won it on back-to-back attack errors by Klump to end the set and the match at 30-28.

McGovern finished the contest hitting 42 percent and led three Rockhurst players in double figures. Hernandez and Hartley had 12 and 11 kills respectively. As a team the Hawks hit 27.6 percent for the match.

Meyer was the lone S&T player with double digit kills. Bekebrede added eight while Klump knocked home seven. The Lady Miners finished the match hitting .165 percent. Costello finished the match with 26 set assists while Bridget Williams (Topeka, Kan./Hayden) had 17 digs and Meyer finished with another double-double recording 12 digs.

S&T returns to action on Saturday afternoon hosting Drury University at home beginning at 3 p.m.