Box Score (Louisville, Ky.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners used a balanced offensive attack in winning its 11th straight matching downing Bellarmine 3-1 (25-19, 22-25, 25-12, 28-26) on Saturday afternoon in Louisville, Ky. S&T had four players record double figure kill totals led by Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) with 16.
Bekebrede became the school's all-time leader in kills passing former teammate Samantha Klump (Ash Grove, Mo./Homeschooled). She now has 970 kills and is just 30 away from being the first player in school history to reach 1,000 kills for her career.
The Lady Miners (13-3, 8-0) GLVC opened the match strong scoring seven of the first 10 points and didn't look back. They led by as many as seven in the frame before settling for the six point win. S&T hit an astounding 43 percent and recorded 17 kills led by Kit Spears (Valley Center, Kan./Valley Center) and Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa) with four apiece.
The Knights (6-6, 2-6 GLVC) responded in the second as it was much tighter with 15 ties and six lead changes. The set was tied 18-18 before Bellarmine scored six of the next nine points to take a 24-21 advantage. The Lady Miners got one of those points back but no more as the Knights squared the match with a 25-22 win.
S&T hit just 18 percent in the set while Bellarmine hit nearly 26 percent. Hayley Wright (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) had four kills to lead the Lady Miners while Krista Gibson and Paula Byrns combined for 10 kills for the Knights.
The third set started out like the second until S&T began to steamroll Bellarmine. The Lady Miners held a 6-5 lead before going on an 11-4 run building its lead to eight points. S&T closed it out in dominating fashion holding the Knights to just 12 points in the stanza.
The Lady Miners hit 33 percent in the frame led by Bekebrede and Spears as the duo combined for 12 of S&T's 17 kills. Defensively the Lady Miners held the Knights offense to just 6.7 percent.
Bellarmine tried to turn the tables on S&T in the fourth set getting out to an early 7-1 lead. The Lady Miners regrouped eventually tying the set at 9-9. The set then proceeded to go back-and-forth with neither side leading by more than a point. With the score tied at 20-20 S&T scored three straight and appeared to be in control.
The Knights responded scoring five of the next six points taking a 25-24 lead. The Lady Miners hung tough when Wright tied it back up with a kill. Bellarmine again took a one point advantage but S&T was able to close out the match by scoring the last three points. Bekebrede tied it with her 16th kill then Zellmer setup match point with a service ace. An error by Byrns gave the Lady Miners the 28-26 win.
S&T finished with 61 kills and hit 28.1 percent in the match. Bekebrede led all players with her kill total. Wright chipped in with 12 while Spears and Zellmer had 11 each. Melanie Shehorn (Flora, Ill./Flora) just missed double figures with nine kills. Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) dished out 48 assists while Jennifer Kegler (Ballwin, Mo./Cor Jesu Academy) had 24 digs leading five players in double digits including Costello.
Bellarmine was led by Gibson with 15 kills while Byrns had 11. Bailey BredenbeckCorp had 36 assists while Jaclyn Ohlmann had 22 digs.
The Lady Miners look to extend their winning streak to 12 on Sunday when they travel to Northern Kentucky for a match beginning at 12 p.m. (CST).