Box Score (Springfield, Ill.) – The Missouri S&T Miners won its fifth straight match and ninth in last 10 with a 3-1 (25-22, 25-14, 23-25, 25-14) at Illinois Springfield on Saturday afternoon. Alison Mueller (Bartelso, Ill./Mater Dei ) led a balanced attack with a career-high 17 kills as the Miners finished with 61 kills. Kelly Kosmopolis (O'Fallon, Ill./O'Fallon Township) had 10 kills and Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa), celebrating her birthday, finished with nine kills.

S&T (9-5, 5-0 GLVC) trailed in the opening set 11-10 before going on a 8-1 run to take control of the set and go in front 18-12. The Prairie Stars (3-8, 1-4 GLVC) eventually closed to within 24-22 on a kill from Ann Nottingham, but Kosmopolis ended it on the next point with a kill from Jennifer Costello (St. Louis, Mo./Parkway South ) to win 25-22.

The Miners led 10-9 in set two before another long run gave them control. They scored 12 of 15 points to go up 22-12 on a service ace by Zellmer. An error by Rebeka Pruemer and a kill by Mueller ended the set in favor of S&T 25-14.

The Miners led 7-3 in set three, but UIS responded this time scoring seven of the next eight points to go in front 10-8. Its lead eventually grew to five points before S&T rallied to tie the set at 23-all on a kill by Julie Meyer (Marthasville, Mo./St. Francis Borgia) and an assisted block by Meyer and Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ). The Prairie Stars though forced a fourth set with back-to-back kills from Connor Borgmeier.

The fourth set was tight early before the Miners slowly began to pull away. They held a 9-3 advantage before a 10-2 run gave them control of the set at 19-11. The lead grew to 23-13 on a pair of kills from Mueller. UIS made it 23-14, before kills from Kosmopolis and Mueller ended it at 25-14.

S&T hit 26.9 percent for the match while holding the Prairie Stars to just 18.5 percent. The Miners finished with 56 assists led by Costello with 53. Jocelyn DeMotte (Topeka, Kan./Hayden) and Emily Jaeger (St. Louis, Mo./St. Joseph's Academy) had 15 and digs 13 respectively.

Connor Borgmeier led UIS with 17 kills. Pruemer had 20 assists and Nottingham had 19 digs.
The Miners are back on the road next Friday, when they travel to Missouri-St. Louis for a battle with the Tritons beginning at 7 p.m.