Box Score

(Louisville, Ky.) - The Missouri S&T Lady Miners kept their GLVC playoff hopes alive by picking up a crucial 3-1 (25-20, 25-23, 14-15, 25-21) win at Bellarmine on Friday evening. With S&T's win and a pair of losses elsewhere in the conference the Lady Miners sit only a game out of the eighth and final playoff spot.

They need to defeat Northern Kentucky on Saturday and hope Drury and Bellarmine both lose. S&T holds tie-breakers against Drury, Wisconsin-Parkside and Bellarmine by virtue of its head-to-head wins.

S&T (14-12, 7-6 GLVC) dominated the opening set racing out to a 7-1 lead. Bellarmine (17-9, 8-5 GLVC) closed to within a pair on three different occasions but got no closer. Leading 13-11 the Lady Miners extended their lead with a 5-1 run to make it 18-12.

The Knights closed to within 19-16, but S&T had the answer running off five of the next points to grab the 24-17 lead. Bellarmine didn't go quietly though running off three straight to get within 24-20. After a timeout by S&T, Kit Spears (Valley Center, Kan./Valley Center) ended the set with a kill from Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ).

The Lady Miners hit 19.6 percent in the opening set with 11 kills. Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) and Samantha Klump (Ash Grove, Mo./Homeschooled) had three apiece to lead S&T. Bellarmine had 10 kills but hit only 14 percent. Krista Gibson had four kills to pace the Knights.

The second set was tight throughout as there were 10 ties and three lead changes. The stanza was tied at 14-all when S&T began to make its run. The Lady Miners took advantage of back-to-back errors by Bellarmine then got a service ace from Bridget Williams (Topeka, Kan./Hayden) to grab a 17-14 lead. It remained a three-point lead as the two sides began exchanging points. S&T stretched its lead to 24-19 on a kill by Katie Herington (Kalona, Iowa/Mid-Prairie). However, just like in the first set the Knights refused to go away scoring four straight points three coming off of Lady Miner errors to close within 24-23. Bellarmine though returned the favor committing a service error on set point to give S&T the 2-0 lead.

The Lady Miners hit 23.3 percent and had 16 kills in the second stanza led by Bekebrede with five and Hayley Wright (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) with four. The Knights hit 35.3 percent with 15 kills led by Gibson with five.

The third set was all Bellarmine. It trailed early but came back with an 8-2 run to take the lead for good at 9-5. S&T got within two on two different occasions but no closer as the Knights went on a 7-1 surge to take a commanding 17-9 lead.

Their lead eventually grew to 10 on a kill by Alyson Harmeling. Bellarmine finished the set off with back-to-back kills from Gibson and Whitney Tormoehlen to win 25-14.

The Knights hit 38 percent in the frame and had 13 kills led by Gibson with six. The Lady Miners hit 14 percent in the set with 11 kills and were led by Klump with four kills.

Bellarmine opened the fourth set scoring four of the first five points before S&T stormed back with a 9-2 run to take a 10-6 lead. The Lady Miners continued to lead until an attack error by Bekebrede knotted the match at 16-all. It didn't stay tied for long though as Bekebrede came back with a kill on the next point giving S&T the lead for good.

Its lead grew to 23-20 before the Knights closed to within 23-21. That would be as close as they got though as Bekebrede set up match point with a kill then S&T won the match on an assisted block from Costello and Herington.

Each team had 13 kills in the final set but Bellarmine had the edge in percentage hitting 25 percent to just 18 for the Lady Miners. Gibson again had six kills to lead the Knights while Bekebrede had four.

For the match each side finished with 51 kills but S&T had 16 more chances and was outhit by a 28 percent to 19 percent margin.

Bekebrede and Klump had 13 kills apiece to lead S&T. Costello dished out 37 assists while Spears had 16 digs for the Lady Miners.

S&T closes out its regular season tomorrow afternoon with a match at Northern Kentucky beginning at 2 p.m. (CST).