Box Score

(Springfield, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners were down a set and six points early in the fourth set before digging deep to rally for a 3-2 win (23-25, 25-16, 24-26, 25-20, 15-13) on Tuesday night at the O'Reilly Family Events Center. S&T (5-3, 3-0 GLVC) picked up its third straight win with the victory.

The first set was tight throughout as there were 16 ties and five lead changes. The Panthers (6-2, 2-1 GLVC) were able to make the plays down the stretch to escape with a 25-23 win. It was pretty evenly matched on the stat sheet as Drury finished with 17 kills and the Lady Miners had 16.

Sara Borneman led all players with seven kills in the set while Hayley Wright (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) and Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles) had four each for S&T.

The second set was all Lady Miners as they led from start to finish. S&T led by as many as seven in the frame before Drury cut into the lead. The Lady Miners refused to yield as they built a nine point lead and were able to square the match at 1-1 with a 25-16 win.

Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa) dominated the second stanza finishing with five kills in seven chances to hit 71.4 percent. As a team S&T had 16 kills and hit nearly 27 percent. Borneman and Ali Rook combined for nine kills for the Panthers.

The third set was another back-and-forth affair featuring six ties and two lead changes. The Lady Miners lead for a majority of the set. With S&T leading 12-9 the Panthers went on an 8-2 run to take a 17-14 lead. Drury held a three point lead but the Lady Miners ran off three straight to tie it back up at 23-all. The Panthers took the next point for set point but S&T again responded to tie it. Drury would win the set with back-to-back kills from Erica Heim and Borneman.

Borneman had seven kills in the frame to lead the Panthers. Bekebrede had five for S&T.

Drury raced out to a 9-3 lead in the fourth set before the Lady Miners called a timeout. After the timeout S&T went on a 13-2 run grabbing a 16-11 lead. The Panthers battled back to tie it at 20-20 but the Lady Miners ran off the last five points to set up the fifth and deciding set.

Kit Spears (Valley Center, Kan./Valley Center) had five kills in six chances to lead S&T while Rook had nine for Drury.

In the finale the Lady Miners scored three of the first four points to take the early lead. They stretched their lead to 10-6 forcing the Panthers to call a timeout. Drury responded out of the timeout going on a 7-2 run to take a 13-12 lead.

S&T refused to quit tying the score on an attack error. Zellmer and Spears gave the Lady Miners a 14-13 lead stuffing Borneman at the net. S&T would win the match on the next point as Zellmer and Wright stuffed Borneman again at the net to win the match.

The Lady Miners had five players in double figures led by Bekebrede with 14. Spears added 13 while Zellmer had 12. Shehorn had 11 kills to go along with six blocks and Wright added 10 more. Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) had 58 set assists and 11 digs. Jocelyn DeMotte (Topeka, Kan./Hayden) had 18 digs while Bekebrede finished with 13 and Jennifer Kegler (Ballwin, Mo./Cor Jesu Academy) had 11.

As a team S&T had 67 kills and hit 20.3 percent. It finished the match with 16 total blocks (2 solo, 28 assisted).

Borneman and Rook combined for 45 of Drury's 60 kills. The Panthers hit just 16.7 percent for the match.

The Lady Miners will be back in action on Friday evening as they travel to Kansas City, Mo., for a matchup against Rockhurst.

Post match notes
Some individual and team records were broken last night.

Shehorn broke the record for most block assists in a five set match with 10. Previous record was eight.

Zellmer had the highest attack percentage in a five set conference match hitting .476. Previous record was .392.

Costello had the most assists in a five set match with 58. Previous record was 51.

Team record for block assists with 28 previous record was 25.