Box Score (Springfield, Mo.) – What started looking a like a sweep for the Missouri S&T volleyball team turned into a hard fought 3-2 win (27-25, 25-23, 24-26, 26-28, 15-13) at Drury on Tuesday evening. Each set was decided by two points and three of the five needed the more than allotted 25 points.

The Panthers (7-10, 2-5 GLVC) appeared to be in control during the opening set holding a 20-13 lead after a kill by Chloe Foster, but the Miners (8-8, 4-3 GLVC) slowly began chipping away at the lead and cut it to 23-19 with a kill by Hayley Wright (Omaha, Neb./Millard West). S&T continued to fight and cut the deficit to two points after back-to-back errors by Drury. The Panthers were the first to reach set point on an attack error by Alison Mueller (Bartelso, Ill./Mater Dei ) which made it 24-21.

The Miners refused to go quietly scoring four straight points to take their first lead since early in the set at 25-24 on a double block by Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) and Mueller. After a Drury timeout, Laynie Timmons tied the set with a kill. Allie Plunk (Hurst, Texas/Birdville) put S&T back in front with a kill and then an error by Timmons gave the Miners the opening set win.

S&T opened the second set strong scoring five of the first seven points, before the Panthers came back to take a 7-6 lead. The Miners countered with four straight points to regain the lead at 10-7, but Drury answered right back with a 6-1 run to regain the lead at 13-11. This time it was S&T's turn to respond and it did with a 6-1 run of its own. The set continued to go back and forth before the Miners gained a 23-21 advantage on a kill from Haslag. The Panthers countered with back-to-back kills forcing S&T to call a timeout with the frame even at 23-all. Out of the timeout Sara Borneman committed a service error to give the Miners set point and then Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) finished it off with a kill.

Drury opened the third stanza with a 12-4 run and appeared in total control, but once again S&T rallied closing the margin to 20-18 on an error by Borneman. The Panthers extended the lead to 24-21, but couldn't finish it off as a kill by Holly Tarvin (Blue Springs, Mo./Blue Springs) and back-to-back errors allowed the Miners to tie it at 24-all. Drury got a second chance though on a service error by Plunk and then Brooke Antenen sent it to a fourth set with a kill.

It was just the opposite in the fourth set as S&T raced out to a big lead only to watch the Panthers rally and tie the match with a 28-26 win. The Miners had a couple of chances to end the match, but couldn't quite finish it off.

S&T fell behind early in the finale, but quickly answered with four straight points to take a 5-2 advantage. The lead grew to 10-6 before Drury
called a timeout. After the timeout the Panthers ran off four straight points to even the set. The Miners then scored three straight forcing Drury to use its second timeout of the frame. The Panthers came out of the timeout and got back-to-back blocks to pull within 13-12. Tarvin's seventh kill of the match set up match point for S&T. Kaliegh Cole kept Drury alive with a kill to make it 14-13, before Wright finished it off with her ninth kill of the match.

S&T finished the match with an attack percentage of .178 (60k/24e/202ta). The Miners finished the match with 17 total blocks and were led by Haslag with seven. Moon and Claire Luther (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) were the lone players in double figures in kills with 15 and 10 respectively. Plunk finished a kill shy of just the second triple-double in school history (9k/41a/20d). Cydney Denning (San Antonio, Texas/Brandeis ) had 26 digs for S&T.

The Panthers had more kills than the Miners with 67, but also committed 15 more errors which resulted in an attack percentage of .127. Drury finished the match with eight team blocks. Timmons and Foster had 14 kills apiece to lead the Panthers while Borneman finished with 13. Antenen dished out 48 assists while Brooke Justis dug up 28 balls.

S&T returns home this Friday to take on the Saints of Maryville University beginning at 7 p.m., at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.