EAST PEORIA, Ill. – Missouri S&T's volleyball team advanced to the semifinals of the GLVC Tournament for the third time in four years winning a thrilling five set match over Lewis 3-2 (13-25, 25-18, 25-22, 18-25, 15-12) on Thursday afternoon at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill. The Miners finished the match with four players in double figure kills.

After scoring the first point of the match S&T (18-12) gave up eight straight points digging itselves a seven-point hole. The Miners would cut the deficit to 12-6 on a kill from Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa), but wouldn't get any closer as Lewis (22-7) outscored S&T 13-7 the rest of the way to take the opener 25-13. The Flyers had a hitting percentage of .294 in the opener while the Miners were held to a .043 attack percentage.

S&T raced out to an early 4-1 lead in the second set only to see Lewis come back and tie it up at 7-7. The Miners responded with a 10-2 run getting a pair of service aces from Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) and key blocks by Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ), Katie McDonald (Orland Park, Ill./Providence Catholic) and Allie Plunk (Hurst, Texas/Birdville). The Flyers cut the S&T lead to 22-16 on a kill from Morgan Cebula but wouldn't get any closer as the Miners scored three of the last five points to even the match at a set each.

In the swing set the two sides went back-and-forth for the first 20 points answering each other point for point. Lewis began to take control of the set scoring seven of the next 10 points and appeared to be in control, but S&T responded with four straight points getting a pair of blocks from Haslag and Alison Mueller (Bartelso, Ill./Mater Dei ).

The Flyers countered with back-to-back points, but the Miners refused to go away scoring four straight and forced Lewis to call a timeout. Out of the break the Flyers scored two straight points however, S&T countered with three straight kills from Mueller and Haslag to set up set point at 24-21. Lewis staved off the first set point but an attack error by Aly Schneider ended the set on the next point.

The Miners got out to an early lead in the fourth set but were unable to hang on as the Flyers used a 6-1 run to build a 19-14 lead late in the frame. S&T got as close as four points, but Lewis was able to close it out to win 25-18 and force a winner take all fifth set.

In the finale the Miners scored six of the first eight points and wouldn't look back as they built a five-point lead midway through. The Flyers refused to go quietly closing to within 13-11 on a block by Schneider. Zellmer set S&T up with its first set point on a great play for a kill making it 14-11. The Miners had a chance to serve out the match but Jackie Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield) hit her serve into the net. It wouldn't matter though as Moon ended the match on the next point with a kill.

S&T finished the match with 54 kills against 28 errors in 211 swings for a hitting percentage of .123. Haslag led four Miners in double figures with 15 kills. Moon contributed 13 to the attack while Mueller and Zellmer added 12 and 11 respectively. Allie Plunk (Hurst, Texas/Birdville) dished out 43 assists while Pyles had 27 digs.

Lewis ended the match with an attack percentage of .151 recording 60 kills against 29 errors in 205 swings. Alexis Davito led the Flyers with 14 kills while Kim Vertin and Cassidy Parsons had 12 kills each. Schneider finished with 11 kills. Leigh Barea had 50 assists and Nicole Yuede had a match-high 31 digs.

S&T will play Truman State on Friday evening at 5:30 p.m. at the EastSide Centre in East Peoria, Ill.