(Rolla, Mo.) – The Missouri S&T Miner volleyball team bounced back from a disappointing loss on Saturday night with a 3-1 (25-23, 25-22, 23-25, 25-12) win over Illinois Springfield on Sunday afternoon. The Miners had a difficult putting the Prairie Stars away until a dominating performance in the fourth set.

S&T (13-11, 8-5 GLVC) held an early three-point lead, but Illinois Springfield (8-14, 1-12 GLVC) was able to level it back up at 10 apiece on a kill from Ashley Beaton. The Miners responded with five straight points highlighted by a pair of kills and a service ace from Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa) to regain the lead. S&T extended its lead to as many as six points on a kill by Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood), but the Prairie Stars continued to battle cutting the Miner lead to 24-23 on a kill by Becca Stoczynski. S&T took the opener on the next rally on Moon's third kill of the frame.

The Miners gave up three of the first four points to begin set two before rallying with a 5-1 run to take the lead at 6-4 on a kill from Alison Mueller (Bartelso, Ill./Mater Dei ). S&T continued to hold the lead at 10-8 when UIS ran off four straight points to grab a 12-10 advantage. The Miners tied it at 12 and then the two sides began answering each other point-for-point.

S&T trailed 21-20 when it took control of the stanza with kills from Katie McDonald (Orland Park, Ill./Providence Catholic), Moon and Jackie Pyles (West Bloomfield, Mich./West Bloomfield) to force the Prairie Stars to take a timeout. Nora Palermo ended the Miner run out of the timeout with a kill to make it 23-22. That would be the closest UIS got though as Pyles and Moon recorded back-to-back kills to give the Miners the 25-22 win.

The Prairie Stars stormed out of the gates in the third set scoring four straight and five of the first six points to put S&T into an early hole. The Miners fought back to within 5-4 only to see UIS run off another five in a row to extend the lead to 10-4. The six-point margin would be the biggest lead of the match for the Prairie Stars.

S&T trailed 21-15, but began to climb back in with an 8-1 run highlighted by the play of Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) who had three kills in the run. UIS got to set point first on a kill from Beaton, but another kill from Haslag brought the Miners back to within a point at 24-23. They would be unable to tie the set though as Shelby Geers ended it with a kill on the next possession.

S&T put the Prairie Stars away early in the fourth set opening the frame by scoring five of the first six points and seven of the first 10. UIS closed the gap to 9-6, before the Miners took firm control scoring nine of the next 10 points to build an 11-point lead. The Prairie Stars wouldn't get closer than nine points the rest of the way as S&T cruised to a 25-12 win.

The Miners finished the match with an attack percentage of .296 recording 65 kills against 17 errors in 162 chances. Haslag recorded 11 of her career-high 20 kills in the final two sets to lead S&T while Moon added 11 kills. Allie Plunk (Hurst, Texas/Birdville) dished out 47 assists while Zellmer led the way with 15 digs.

Illinois Springfield recorded 54 kills against 23 errors in 165 attempts finishing the match with a .188 hitting percentage. Geers led the Prairie Stars with 14 kills while Nikki Madoch added 10 kills. Lexi Hall distributed 34 assists while Kayla Katarzynski had a match-high 37 digs.

S&T will play its final five matches of the regular season on the road and that stretch begins on Wednesday night when it travels to Springfield, Mo., to take on Drury at 7 p.m.