(Aurora, Ill.) – Missouri S&T's bid for a first ever perfect weekend at the GLVC/GLIAC Crossover came up short on Saturday afternoon as it lost its finale to Saginaw Valley State
3-0 (21-25, 23-25, 19-25) at the Great Lakes Center in Aurora, Ill. S&T's 2-1 record at the seventh annual event helped the GLVC finish the weekend with a 37-11 and helped lead the conference to a fifth straight title at the event.
Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) and
Allie Plunk (Hurst, Texas/Birdville) were named to the All-Tournament team.
The opening set between the Miners (12-10) and Cardinals (11-8) was tied at nine when SVSU began to break away with a 9-2 run. S&T fought its way back to 22-21 after a kill by
Alison Mueller (Bartelso, Ill./Mater Dei ) but weren't able to overtake the Cardinals as they scored the final three points to take the opener.
The Miners raced out to a nine point lead in the second set and appeared to be in control, but were unable to put Saginaw Valley as they stormed back to tie it at 22 on a kill from Kelsey Ferla. S&T regained the lead on a kill from
Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ), but just like the first set the Cardinals scored the final three points to take the commanding 2-0 lead.
The third set began a lot like the opener with it tight early and then Saginaw Valley began to slowly pull away building a 16-11 lead and the Miners wouldn't get closer than four points the rest of the way. The Cardinals led by as many as eight points in the stanza before ending on a six-point margin.
S&T finished the contest with an attack percentage of .167 registering 35 kills against 16 errors in 114 chances. Haslag,
Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa) and
Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) paced the offensive attack with seven kills each. Plunk had 27 assists and
Jackie Pyles (West Bloomfield, Mich./West Bloomfield) had 15 digs.
Saginaw Valley recorded 43 kills, had 20 errors in 121 chances to finish the match with a hitting percentage of .190. Ferla and Morgan Eddy had 13 kills each to pace the Cardinal attack. Kelly Vellucci dished out 39 assists and finished with 12 digs.
The Miners close out the home portion of their 2014 schedule next weekend. S&T will host McKendree next Saturday at 5 p.m. and then host Illinois Springfield next Sunday at 1 p.m.
