Box Score (Rolla, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners swept past the Drury Panthers 3-0 (25-19, 25-16, 25-23) and clinched its first ever trip to the GLVC Tournament on Tuesday evening in Rolla.

S&T (18-8, 11-3 GLVC) raced out to an early 7-0 lead to open the match and continued to hold that lead until late in the set. The Lady Miners led 18-12 when the Panthers (14-12, 5-9 GLVC) began to make things interesting scoring six of the next seven points to get within 19-18. A kill from Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) extended the lead back to two but Ali Rook answered on the next swing making it 20-19. That would be as close as Drury got though as S&T scored the final five points to win 25-19 on a kill from Jocelyn DeMotte (Topeka, Kan./Hayden).

The second set was more of the same as the Lady Miners raced out to a 7-1 lead. In fact S&T led wire-to-wire in each of the first two frames. The Panthers got as close as 10-6 before the Lady Miners scored eight of the next 12 points to take an 18-10 lead. The lead grew to nine on two different occasions before Bekebrede finished it off with a kill and the 25-16 win.

The third set was the closest of the match featuring 10 ties and five lead changes. Drury led 2-1 early before S&T ran off five straight to take the lead. The Panthers tied it at 9-all but the Lady Miners regained a two point edge. Drury tied it a couple of more times before S&T pushed its lead back to two at 18-16 on a kill from Bekebrede.

The Panthers continued to fight and claw eventually taking a 21-19 lead on an ace from Elly Cintron and forcing the Lady Miners to take a timeout. S&T continued to trail by two when Bekebrede recorded her eighth kill of the match to make it 23-22 and give the serve back to the Lady Miners. Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa) responded in a big way recording back-to-back service aces setting up match point at 24-23. Bekebrede ended the match on the next point with her ninth kill of the night for the 25-23 victory.

S&T didn't have one of its better offensive performances hitting only 19 percent for the match but was very solid defensively recording 70 digs and holding the Panther attack to just 10.8 percent.

Zellmer led the way for the Lady Miners recording 10 kiills, four aces, three blocks and two digs. Bekebrede and Hayley Wright (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) each added nine kills. Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) dished out 36 assists while DeMotte had 19 digs.

Rook led Drury with 11 kills. Alexis Dutt had 22 assists while Brooke Foster had 20 digs.

S&T returns to action on Friday evening when it travels to Quincy, Ill., for a match up with the Quincy Hawks beginning at 7 p.m.