Box Score

(Kansas City, Mo.) – If the last two matches are any indication Miner volleyball fans may need to stock up on their antacids as Missouri S&T rallied again from a 2-1 deficit to win another five set thriller 3-2 (25-22, 17-25, 9-25, 25-15, 20-18) at Rockhurst on Friday evening.

“We're starting to do some really good things right now,” head coach Jason Holt said. “I really don't like what they're doing to coach (Megan) Laws and my hearts right now, but how hard they fought back to win this match is really amazing.

“The game winners of this tonight were our defense. Jennifer Kegler (Ballwin, Mo./Cor Jesu Academy) and Jocelyn DeMotte (Topeka, Kan./Hayden) did a great job defensively which gave our hitters a chance to win it at the end.”

S&T (6-3, 4-0 GLVC) got off to a slow start in this one falling behind by five early. It came back to take the lead in the opening set on a kill by Kit Spears (Valley Center, Kan./Valley Center) breaking a 14-14 tie. The Lady Miners extended their lead to three points before Rockhurst (3-6, 1-3 GLVC) came back to get within a point. S&T pushed the lead back to three and were able to close out the set on back-to-back kills from Erin Bekebrede (St. Charles, Mo./St. Charles).

The next two sets were all Hawks as they got out to big leads and wouldn't look back. They hit a combined 28.3 percent in the middle two sets while holding the Lady Miners to a negative seven percent hitting percentage.

The fourth set was tied early before S&T responded scoring six straight points to take a 10-4 lead. After a Rockhurst timeout it began to chip away at the Lady Miner lead getting to within 12-9. S&T responded again running off seven straight points to take a 19-9 lead.

The turning point of the match came in that fourth set. The Hawks were serving and beginning to make a comeback cutting the lead to 19-13. Coming out of a timeout though Rockhurst was called for having the wrong server serving nullifying its last three points.

S&T took advantage pushing its lead to 10 points and winning by that margin in forcing the fifth and deciding game.

In the finale the two sides went back and forth with the momentum. The Lady Miners appeared to be in control leading 14-12 with two match points, but the Hawks won two straight points to tie it at 14-14. Hayley Wright (Omaha, Neb./Millard West) gave S&T a 15-14 lead but once again Rockhurst was able to win back-to-back points to take a 16-15 lead. This time it was the Lady Miners turn to stave off the final point and were able to thanks to a bad set.

The Hawks regained a 17-16 lead on a kill by Kelsi Rempe before Wright and Zellmer recorded back-to-back kills to make it 18-17 in favor of S&T. Rockhurst tied it on a kill from Karen Schwartze but the Lady Miners held tough as Bekebrede had back-to-back kills to end the match.

S&T finished the match with 50 kills and were led by Bekebrede with 16 while Zellmer had 12 and Spears added 10 more. Melanie Shehorn (Flora, Ill./Flora) finished with nine kills. Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) dished out 49 assists. DeMotte led all players with 25 digs. Bekebrede finished with another double-double with 18 digs while Kegler added 16 and Emily Jaeger (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph's Academy) had 10.

The Hawks were led by Maggie McGovern with 20 kills. Maggie Hummel added nine more kills. Leah Grant had 46 assists while Victoria Mahl contributed 24 digs.

The Lady Miners return to action on Saturday afternoon taking on William Jewell and Pittsburg State at William Jewell starting at 1 p.m. S&T will play the Cardinals in a GLVC match at 1 followed by a non-conference match with the Gorillas beginning at approximately 3:30 p.m.