Box Score (Aurora, Ill.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners played one of its better matches of the season on Saturday, unfortunately the 11^th ranked Ferris State Bulldogs were that much better as it defeated S&T 3-1 (22-25, 19-25, 25-18, 16-25) on Saturday afternoon in Aurora, Ill.
The Lady Miners (16-7) played well in the opening set recording 13 kills in 37 chances but had a hard time stopping the Bulldog (17-2) attack as they hit 48.5 percent in the opening set. FSU led by as many as seven at 20-13 late in the frame. S&T was able to climb back into the set going on a 9-3 run to get within 23-22. The Bulldogs were able to hang on as they got kills from Anne Sutton and Ashley Huntey to take the set 25-22.
In the second set FSU took an early lead before the Lady Miners rallied to the set at 9-all. The Bulldogs regained control of the set running off 10 of the next 12 points to take a 19-11 lead. S&T whittled away at the lead getting as close as six on multiple occasions but couldn't any closer as FSU closed it out 25-19 in taking the 2-0 lead.
The third set was all Lady Miners as they led from start to finish. They led by as many as nine in the frame before the Bulldogs got within five late but S&T was able to put the stanza away on a pair of kills from Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa) to win 25-18.
The final set was the closest of the match featuring five ties and four lead changes. After falling behind early the Lady Miners regrouped tying the set at 10-10 on a service ace from Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles). From that point on it was all Ferris State as it ran off 10 of the next 11 points and didn't look back in taking the set 25-16 to win the match.
As a team S&T hit 20.3 percent in the match and were led by Bekebrede and Zellmer with 15 and 13 kills respectively. Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) had 47 assists while Jocelyn DeMotte (Topeka, Kan./Hayden) had 15 digs.
Ferris finished the match hitting 29.9 percent and was led by the trio of Sutton, Huntey and Courtney Rehm who accounted for 42 of the team's 56 kills. Samantha Fordyce dished out 50 assists while Lisa Tobiczyk had 18 digs.
The Lady Miners return to action next weekend traveling to St. Louis on Friday evening to open the second half of conference play at Missouri-St. Louis beginning at 7 p.m.