Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 (Monmouth, Ore.) - The Missouri S&T Lady Miners had its chances, but couldn't put Grand Valley away in its 3-2 (20-25, 26-24, 25-20, 23-25, 8-15) loss on Saturday afternoon at the Western Oregon Invitational. In the evening S&T was swept by Western Washington 3-0 (17-25, 15-25, 22-25).

The Lady Miners (0-4) fell behind 7-2 to begin the opening set against the Lakers (2-1) before closing to within 9-8 on back-to-back kills from Hayley Wright (Omaha, Neb./Millard West). GV pushed its lead to as many as five points four different times as it won the opener 25-20. Julie Meyer (Marthasville, Mo./St. Francis Borgia), Wright and Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) combined for 10 of the 11 kills in the frame.

The second set was the tightest of the five with 11 ties and four lead changes. The match was tied at 14-all before the Lady Miners went on a 5-2 run to take a 19-16 lead. The Lakers ran off three straight to tie it at 19-all, but S&T answered with three straight of its own to retake a 22-19 advantage. They had three set points, but GV rallied to it at 24-24. After a timeout, the Lady Miners evened the set with a kill from Alison Mueller (Bartelso, Ill./Mater Dei ) and an attack error by Megan Schroeder.

S&T pulled away halfway through the third set building a pair of five point leads and were able to withstand a late rally to win 25-20 and take the 2-1 edge. The Lady Miners led for a majority of the fourth set but couldn't put it away. They held leads of 21-19 and 23-22 but the Lakers scored the final three points of the set to force the fifth and deciding set.

The fifth set was all GV as it opened an 11-5 lead and went on to win 15-8. The Lakers had four players in double figures led by Abby Aiken with 18 kills. Betsy Ronda added 16 while Schroeder and Eno Umoh had 14 and 10 respectively.

Meyer, Haslag and Wright had 31 of S&T's 51 kills. Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) dished out 40 assists while Jennifer Kegler (Ballwin, Mo./Cor Jesu Academy) had 21 digs.

In the nightcap against the Vikings of Western Washington (4-0), S&T fell behind 4-1 to start the match before tying it at 7-all on a kill by Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa). WWU scored six of the next eight points and wouldn't look back on its way to a 25-17 win.

The Vikings opened a 9-3 lead to begin the second set and led by as many as 10 points in the stanza.They hit 32.5 percent in the frame.

S&T trailed for a majority of the third set as well but was able to tie it on a couple of different occassions. They just had a rough time stopping WWU's potent offense. The Vikings registered 17 kills against one error in the final set to hit 40.0 percent. The Lady Miners had 17 kills as well but committed three more errors which turned out to be the difference in the 25-22 loss.

Marlayna Geary and Kayla Erickson had 26 of Western Washington's 47 kills. As a team the Vikings hit 37 percent for the match.

Meyer had 10 kills to lead S&T while Mueller chipped in with eight. Costello dished out 32 assists while Kegler and Jocelyn DeMotte (Topeka, Kan./Hayden) combined for 21 digs.

The Lady Miners open the home portion of their schedule next Friday against Upper Iowa at 2 p.m., in the Days Inn & Suites/Super 8 Middle of Everywhere Classic.