Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

(Aurora, Ill.) – It was a rough day for the Missouri S&T Lady Miners as it dropped both of its matches in the third annual GLVC/GLIAC Crossover Tournament in Aurora, Ill. S&T lost its first match on Friday morning to 25^th ranked Grand Valley State 3-0 (22-25, 20-25, 13-25) and its second one to Ashland 3-0 (27-29, 15-25, 22-25) later in the evening.

In the opener against Grand Valley State (12-5), the Lady Miners dug themselves a 10 point deficit in the first set but eventually rallied to within 22-21. A couple of miscues by S&T set up set point for the Lakers. Kit Spears (Valley Center, Kan./Valley Center) kept the opening set alive for the Lady Miners with a kill to make it 24-22, but GVSU put the set away on the ensuing point on a kill by Leslie Curtis.

Both teams hit 15.6 percent in the opening frame and each had 11 kills in 32 opportunities. Hayley Wright (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) had three kills to lead S&T while Rebeccah Rapin had three for the Lakers.

The second set was a lot like the first with Grand Valley again getting out to a 10 point advantage. The Lady Miners again tried to battle back into the set but dug themselves to big of a hole the second time around and couldn't get any closer than four points down the stretch.

S&T's offense struggled to find a rhythm in the second set as it was held to a negative hitting percentage. The Lakers on the other hand hit 22.6 percent in the frame. Curtis had four kills in the frame for GVSU while the Lady Miners had three different players with two each.

The final set saw three ties and two lead changes early on before the Lakers went on an 11-4 run to take control of the match and win 25-13.

GVSU hit 41 percent in the final frame and was led by Rapin with eight kills. S&T again struggled to find its offensive rhythm being held to under 10 percent. Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) had three kills in the set for the Lady Miners.

The Lakers finished the contest hitting 26.1 percent and were led by Rapin with 12 kills. S&T hit .033 percent and was led by Bekebrede with seven.

In their second match of the day the Lady Miners did battle with Ashland (12-7). S&T held the lead on the Eagles for a good portion of the set but weren't able to close them out. After the Eagles rallied to take a 24-23 lead the Lady Miners staved off one set point getting a kill from Bekebrede. S&T then grabbed the lead and had a set point after an Ashland error. The Lady Miners couldn't close it out though as Kate Eckels tied it with a kill. Bekebrede gave S&T its second set point of the match with a kill but a service error by her tied it back up.

Spears gave S&T its third set point of the stanza with a kill but the Eagles scored the final three points to take the opening stanza 29-27.

Each side hit above 30 percent in the frame as Ashland was at 33.3 percent and the Lady Miners were at 32.1 percent. Brittany Snider had nine kills to the lead the Eagles while Bekebrede had eight for S&T.

The Eagles got out to a big lead in the second set and the Lady Miners couldn't recover as Ashland went on to win 25-15.

The Eagles hit 50 percent in the frame and were led by Eckels with seven kills. S&T hit 16.7 percent and was led by Spears, Samantha Klump (Ash Grove, Mo./Homeschooled) and Kaci Herron (Jonesboro, Ark./Jonesboro) with two kills each.

In the final set the Lady Miners led through the midway point before Ashland went on a run building an 18-13 lead. S&T fought back to within three on three different occasions but each time the Eagles had the answer.

Trailing 23-18 the Lady Miners made one final push scoring four straight points but it wasn't enough as Ashland scored the last two to win the match.

The Eagles finished the contest hitting 34 percent and were led by Eckels and Snider with 18 and 16 kills respectively.

S&T finished the match at 23.8 percent and were led by Bekebrede with 12 kills.

The Lady Miners play one final match in the GLVC/GLIAC Crossover on Saturday afternoon against Wayne State (Mich.) beginning at 1p.m.