By: Luke Rinne, Assistant Sports Information Director
Box Score
(St. Louis, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners were swept 3-0 (19-25, 22-25, 22-25) at 20th ranked Missouri-St. Louis on Tuesday evening inside the Mark Twain Building in St. Louis, Mo.
The Lady Miners (11-11, 5-5 GLVC) trailed for the entire opening set as they couldn't slow down the hot hitting Triton (18-4, 9-1 GLVC) offense. UMSL led by as many as seven late in the frame before S&T rallied to within five at 24-19. That would be as close as it got as the Tritons got a kill from Erin Higgins to win the set. UMSL hit 43.6 percent in the opening set and had 18 kills against one error. The Lady Miners finished the stanza hitting 24.4 percent with 14 kills in 41 chances. Higgins had five kills to lead the Tritons. Kelsie Rankin and Shelby Crawford had four each. Hayley Wright (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) and Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) combined for nine kills to lead S&T.
The second set was back and forth featuring nine ties and three lead changes. Neither side had a lead of bigger than two points through the first 30 points. The Tritons tried to pull away building a 20-17 late in the set but the Lady Miners ran off three of the next four points to get back within one at 21-20. UMSL answered that run with a 3-1 run of its own to get to set point at 24-21. S&T staved off one set point getting an assisted block from Bekebrede and Katie Herington (Kalona, Iowa/Mid-Prairie) to close to within a pair. It was as close as they would get as Higgins responded with a kill to give the Tritons a 2-0 lead.
The Lady Miners gave up the first two points in the third set before rallying to take the lead at 7-6. They then proceeded to score 11 of the next 17 points taking their biggest lead of the night at 18-12. They couldn't hold the lead though as UMSL went on an 8-1 run to regain the lead at 20-19. Wright tied it back up with a kill at 20 all but S&T couldn't regain the lead as the Tritons scored five of the final seven points to win the set and the match.
The Lady Miners finished the night with 38 kills and were led by Wright and Bekebrede with 11 and 10 kills respectively. Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) finished with 33 assists while Bekebrede had 11 digs.
UMSL finished the match with 45 kills and were led by Higgins with 12 kills and Rankin with 11 kills. Kayla Kinzinger dished out 20 assists and Carolyn Holstein had 16 digs.
S&T returns home to begin a three game home stand beginning on Friday night against Southern Indiana starting at 7 p.m., at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.
