(Rolla, Mo.) – Missouri S&T's volleyball team begins a tough stretch on Wednesday night at Drury playing the first of its final five matches on the road. The Miners will take on the Panthers at 7 p.m. and then head north this weekend to take on Wisconsin-Parkside and Lewis.
S&T (13-11, 8-5 GLVC) currently stands in fourth in the GLVC's West Division and holds one of the two wild card spots right now. The top three teams in each division and two wild cards advance to the conference tournament in East Peoria, Ill., Nov. 14-16.
The Miners defeated the Panthers earlier this season in Rolla by a score of 3-1 (19-25, 26-24, 25-21, 25-19).
Jackie Pyles (West Bloomfield, Mich./West Bloomfield) and
Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) combined for 34 kills in that contest as S&T finished the match with a hitting percentage of .262 (58 kills/19 errors/149 attacks).
The Panthers (14-8, 5-8 GLVC) enter Wednesday night's match having won six straight and are 6-3 at home this year. Last weekend they swept past Illinois Springfield and McKendree to move into a fifth place tie with Maryville in the West Division and are three games behind the Miners.
Drury is hitting .206 (1,076 kills/459 errors/2,991 attacks) for the season and averaging almost 14 kills per set. It's led offensively by BJ Specht with 199 kills and she is one of six Panthers that have recorded more than 100 kills. Brooke Antenen is dishing out an average of 10.35 assists/set while Bridget Justis is the leader on the defensive side of the ball with 4.40 digs/set.
On Saturday S&T will take on Wisconsin-Parkside at 5 p.m. and it will be the first time the two sides have meet at Parkside since 2009. Saturday's contest will be the seventh meeting all-time between the two schools with the series tied 3-3. The Rangers have won the previous two meetings in their gym.
Parkside is 14-9, 7-6 in the GLVC heading into their match at home with Lewis on Wednesday evening. The match kicks off a five match homestand for the Rangers who are currently sitting in the second wild card slot a game ahead of Southern Indiana.
Offensively, Parkside is averaging 12.1 kills/set and have an attack percentage of .186 (1,052 kills/469 errors/3,136 attacks). Jackie Langer leads the Rangers with nearly three kills per set while Rebecca Roembke is averaging 2.64 kills/set. Megan Pekarek is the primary setter for Parkside and she is averaging 8.13 assists per set while Meghan Conley leads things on the defensive side with 3.32 digs/set.
Lewis enters play this week with a record of 18-5, 10-3 in the GLVC heading into Wednesday's night match at Parkside. The Flyers will then welcome Drury to town on Saturday before facing the Miners on Sunday at 1 p.m. This will also be S&T's first trip to Lewis for a regular season match since 2009. The Miners lost to Indianapolis at Lewis last season in the opening round of the GLVC Tournament.
The Flyers average over 14 kills/set and have an attack percentage of .254 (1,137 kills/382 errors/2,969 attempts). Alexis Davito leads the Lewis offense with nearly 3.8 kills per set while Aly Schneider and Morgan Cebula are averaging 2.55 and 2.54 kills/set respectively. Leigh Barea runs the Flyer attack dishing out 11.7 assists per set while Amy Choi is the leader on the defensive side of the ball with 5.42 digs/set.
Wednesday's Match at DruryLive StatsLive VideoSaturday's Match at Wisconsin-ParksideLive StatsSunday's Match at LewisLive StatsLive Video
