Box Score (Quincy, Ill.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners volleyball squad won the first two sets of its Great Lakes Valley Conference opener at Quincy on Friday, but were unable to hang on as the Hawks rallied to win the last three sets taking the conference opener for both squads 3-2 (25-13, 25-17, 18-25, 22-25 and 15-17).

The Lady Miners (3-12, 0-1 GLVC) took advantage of 11 Hawk (2-10, 1-0 GLVC) errors in the opening set while recording six kills to cruise to the easy set win. S&T outhit QU by a .211-to-.143 percentage in the frame. There was one tie in the set before the Lady Miners took control with a pair of long runs.

The second set was tight early with S&T holding a slight 7-6 advantage before it ran off a 10-2 run to take a commanding 17-8 lead. The Hawks would not get any closer than five the rest of the way. The Lady Miners hit nearly 50 percent in the set recording 17 kills against only two errors in 31 total chances.

The third set was pretty much all Quincy as it got off to a 7-2 lead to start. S&T would cut the deficit to 9-5 before the Hawks extended the lead to 16-9. The Lady Miners wouldn't go quietly though as they eventually cut the lead to 19-18, but they weren't able to tie the game as Quincy ran off the final six points to force a fourth set.

It was a back-and-forth affair in the fourth set with 15 ties and four lead changes. It was 4-4 early before the Hawks went on a 4-0 run to retake the lead. S&T quickly answered with four straight of its own to tie it back up at 8 all. Neither side held more than a one point lead as they began trading the next 22 points.  Quincy scored three straight points taking a 20-17 advantage before the Lady Miners rallied to tie it back up by scoring four of the next five points. QU took a 22-21 lead on a S&T attack error, but a block by Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) and Samantha Klump (Ash Grove, Mo./Homeschooled) tied it back up at 22 all. The Hawks took the set though by scoring the final three points.

The Lady Miners got off to another good start in the fifth set by scoring seven of the first nine points. Julie Meyer (Marthasville, Mo./St. Francis Borgia)'s kill gave S&T an 8-3 lead at the changeover. The lead grew to 10-4 before Quincy scored back-to-back points to cut the lead to four. Meyer and Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) recorded back-to-back kills extending the lead back to six. The Hawks though rallied with a 7-1 run to tie the set at 13 all. After a kill by Katie Ebbing set up set point for Quincy, the Lady Miners scored back-to-back points on a kill by Bekebrede and a service to give them set point. The Hawks though scored the final three points of the match on an attack error by S&T and a pair of kills by Lyndsay Kooi and Ebbing.

Meyer and Bekebrede were the lone Lady Miners with double figure kill totals with 16 and 11 kills respectively. Danielle Kracl (Omaha, Neb./Burke) and Costello finished with a combined 44 set assists while Jennifer Kegler (Ballwin, Mo./Cor Jesu Academy) and Bridget Williams (Topeka, Kan./Hayden) had 21 and 14 digs respectively.

S&T returns to action on Saturday taking part in the Illinois-Springfield triangular against Illinois-Springfield and Christian Brothers beginning at 1 p.m. in Springfield, Ill.