Box Score (Rolla, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners had several opportunities to win its match against Southern Indiana but were unable to capitalize on those chances as it fell 3-1 (26-28, 25-13, 22-25, 19-25) on Saturday in Rolla.
S&T (13-6, 8-2 GLVC) scored the first four points of the match en route to an 8-4 lead. USI (10-5, 8-2 GLVC) countered by scoring seven of the next eight in taking an 11-9 advantage. The sides began to trade points as the lead was never bigger than a point. Hayley Wright (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) gave the Lady Miners a 22-20 advantage with a kill but a service error on the next point swung the momentum to the Screaming Eagles. They scored three straight to regain the lead on a kill from Danielle LaGrange at 23-22.
After a S&T timeout the Lady Miners tied it 23-23 on a kill by Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa). USI won the next point on another kill by LaGrange setting up set point. An error by LaGrange tied it back up at 24-all. The Screaming Eagles won the next point on a Lady Miner error for their second set point. A pair of kills by Melanie Shehorn (Flora, Ill./Flora) and Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) gave S&T a set point but USI won the final three points in taking the opening set 28-26.
The Screaming Eagles hit 31.4 percent in the opening stanza led by Emily Diedrich with five kills. The Lady Miners had 18 kills in the frame but committed 10 errors to finish hitting 18.2 percent. Bekebrede had seven kills for S&T.
The Lady Miners dominated the second set building a 10 point advantage and wouldn't look back on their way to a 25-13 set win to square the match at 1-1. S&T hit 52 percent in the frame along with 14 kills. Bekebrede hit 70 percent in the frame with seven kills in 10 opportunities. The Lady Miners held USI to a 3.1 hitting percentage.
In the third set S&T scored eight of the first 11 points and appeared to in control of the set. The Screaming Eagles, however, had other plans going on a 15-2 run in taking an 18-10 lead. The Lady Miners began to chip away eventually getting to within 23-21 on a kill from Alison Mueller (Bartelso, Ill./Mater Dei ). The rally ended their though as USI hung on for a 25-22 win.
The Screaming Eagles hit 26.3 percent in the third set and were led by Emily Meyer who had half of the team's kills. On the other side of the set S&T hit 20 percent finishing with seven kills led by Kit Spears (Valley Center, Kan./Valley Center) and Zellmer with four each.
In the fourth set the Lady Miners again got out to an early lead scoring four of the first five points. After a pair of ties S&T regained the lead and began pushing its advantage out to 15-11 forcing USI into a timeout. After the timeout the Screaming Eagles ran off eight of the next nine points taking a 19-16 lead.
S&T was able to get within 20-18 but no closer as the Screaming Eagles closed out the match scoring five of the final six to take the win.
The Lady Miners outhit USI 20.4 percent to 19.6 percent and 14 more kills but committed nine more errors.
Bekebrede led the way with a match-high 22 kills and become the first player in school history with 1,000 career kills. Shehorn and Zellmer added 11 and 10 kills respectively. Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) had 51 assists while Jocelyn DeMotte (Topeka, Kan./Hayden) had 25 digs.
Meyer and LaGrange led the way for the Screaming Eagles combining for over half of their kills. Jorae Bradbury had 41 assists while Kayla Heldman added 14 digs.
S&T returns to the court on Sunday when it hosts Kentucky Wesleyan at 1 p.m.