Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Joplin, Mo. – The Missouri S&T volleyball squad picked up its first win of the 2009 season by sweeping past Midwestern State 3-0 (25-23, 25-18, 25-20) on Saturday afternoon at the Missouri Southern Invitational. In their second game of the day the Lady Miners hung tough with the 17^th ranked Pittsburg State Gorillas but lost 3-1 (23-25, 25-20, 23-25, 15-25).

The opener against Midwestern State saw seven ties, but no lead changes in the tight first set. With the score tied at 17-17 S&T ran off four straight points to grab its largest lead of the set, but the Mustangs responded with four straight points of their own to tie the set back up at 21. After a pair of errors gave the Lady Miners a 23-21 lead MSU got a pair of kills to tie the set back up. Danielle Kracl (Omaha, Neb./Burke) and Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) responded with back-to-back kills giving S&T the 25-23 set win.

In the second set it was back and forth for the first 10 points before the Lady Miners used a 4-0 run to grab the lead and the momentum pulling away for a 25-18 win. S&T had 16 kills out of 42 chances in the set and outhit the Mustangs by a .238-to-.083 hitting percentage.

In the final set the Lady Miners led pretty much throughout the set building an early five point advantage. Midwestern State cut the lead to 14-13 before S&T built its largest lead of the match at 23-16. Julie Meyer (Marthasville, Mo./St. Francis Borgia)'s kill on the second match point ended the contest for the Lady Miners at 25-20.

Meyer finished the match with 20 kills out of 44 chances. Samantha Klump (Ash Grove, Mo./Homeschooled) joined her in double figures recording 10 kills in 11 chances and hit 91.9 percent for the match. Kracl had 19 set assists while Bridget Williams (Topeka, Kan./Hayden) dug 16 balls off the floor.

Against the Gorillas, S&T battled hard in the back and forth match that saw 14 ties and four lead changes. The Lady Miners had a couple of early leads in the first set before PSU answered with a run to take its first lead of the set at 10-9. Over the next couple of points each side answered each other point for point before the Gorillas ran off four straight points for their largest lead of the set at 20-16. S&T hung tough though rallying back to tie the set on an attack error by Pittsburg State at 23-23. The Lady Miners couldn't regain the lead as Pitt scored the final two points of the set to grab the 1-0 lead.

The second set was all S&T as they got out to a big lead early and slowly extended it over the course of the set getting it to as big as 20-11 at one point. The Gorillas got back within four but wouldn't get any closer as Meyer recorded back-to-back kills to end the set and even the match at 1-1.

The third set was a lot like the first as it was tightly contested for most of the match. PSU was able to build a four point lead on two different occasions, but each time the Lady Miners came back to tie things up. The Gorillas scored three of the set's final four points however to take the set 25-23 and a 2-1 advantage.

In the fourth game it was all Pittsburg State as it got out to an early five point lead and never looked back on the way to the 25-15 victory. S&T got within three at one point but couldn't get any closer as the Gorillas converted on 12 of their 18 attacks with no errors in the final set for a .667 hitting percentage.  

Meyer again led the S&T offense with 19 kills. Klump added nine and Lynsey Jorgensen (St. Louis, Mo./Lindbergh) contributed seven to the offensive attack. Kracl and Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) combined for 45 set assists while Williams recorded 24 digs.

The Lady Miners began the home portion of their 2009 schedule on Tuesday, September 1, when they host Harding at 7 p.m. at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.