Box Score (Rolla, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners fought hard but in the end couldn't overcome Northern Kentucky's explosive offensive trio in a 3-1 (19-25, 15-25, 25-18, 22-25) loss on Friday evening in Rolla, Mo.

Northern Kentucky (20-10, 10-3 GLVC) got off to a quick start in the opening set scoring five of the first six points and never looked back as it led the entire set. The Lady Miners (10-26, 5-8 GLVC) could only get as close as three early in the set before the Norse began to pull away midway through the set building an 18-10 lead. S&T cut it to five on a couple of different occasions late but wouldn't get any closer.

NKU hit over 40 percent in the frame and recorded 14 kills led by Kim Nemcek with five. Noelle Peterson and Sarah Drennen had three kills apiece in the set. The Lady Miners hit pretty well themselves recording 11 kills in 26 chances to hit 27 percent. Julie Meyer, Erin Bekebrede and Katie Herington each had three kills in the stanza.

The second set was tied at 2 all before Northern Kentucky used a 16-6 spurt building its largest lead of the night at 18-8. S&T battled back to within 20-15 before the Norse scored the final five points to take the set 25-15.

Peterson, Drennen and Nemcek combined for nine of NKU's 11 kills in the set. The Lady Miner offense never quite got on track in the frame recording five kills against eight errors.

Meyer was an offensive force in the third set as she hit 53 percent with eight kills against no errors in 15 attacks in leading the Lady Miners to a 25-18 win and forcing a fourth game. The offense hit .268 percent in the frame and had the same number of kills (13) as NKU but committed six fewer errors in the stanza while holding it to its lowest hitting percentage of the night at .109.

The fourth set was tight early on before the Norse slowly began to pull away midway through eventually building their lead to 20-13. S&T hung tough with a 5-1 run to get within three and would eventually pull within 23-21 but couldn't quite get over the hump as Northern Kentucky held on in the final set for the 25-22 win.

The Lady Miners played decently in the final set recording nine kills in 34 chances but they were unable to stop the NKU offense as it hit 23 percent in the finale with 18 kills in 44 chances.

The trio of Peterson, Nemcek and Drennen combined for 14 of the Norse's 18 kills in the last set and all three finished with double figure kill totals led by Nemcek with 16. Peterson had 14 while Drennen accounted for 13. NKU finished the match hitting 19.9 percent and had 55 kills in 146 chances.

Meyer led the S&T offense with 14 kills in 35 chances as it recorded 38 kills in 133 chances to finish the contest with .158 hitting percentage. Bekebrede and Herington each had seven kills for the Lady Miners.

S&T plays its final match of the season on Saturday afternoon against Bellarmine University beginning at 3 p.m. in the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.