LIBERTY, Mo. – Missouri S&T's volleyball squad concluded its regular season on Saturday defeating William Jewell 3-1 (25-20, 25-15, 19-25, 25-16) in Liberty, Mo. With S&T's win and Missouri-St. Louis's loss at Truman the Miners secured the final automatic bid and will be the third seed from the GLVC's West Division in next week's GLVC Tournament in East Peoria, Ill.

S&T (17-12, 12-6 GLVC) was led in the opening set by the duo of Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa) and Alison Mueller (Bartelso, Ill./Mater Dei ) who combined for 11 of the team's 17 kills. The Miners had a hitting percentage of .265 in the opening frame but were unable to shake free from the Cardinals (3-25, 1-17 GLVC) until the final two points of the set.

S&T led for all of the second set except for an early tie and ended the frame scoring nine of the last 10 points to take the stanza 25-15. The Miners hit .361 recording 16 kills against three errors in 36 chances.

After the intermission S&T struggled to find its offensive rhythm hitting just .020 and falling behind by five points early. The Miners closed to within two points on four different occasions but each time was unable to get over the hump as William Jewell scored the final four points of the set to cut the S&T lead in half.

Just like the second set the Miners got out to an early lead and wouldn't look back pulling away for the 25-16 victory. S&T hit .306 in the fourth set registering 13 kills against two errors in 36 swings and held the Cardinals to a .068 attack percentage (11 kills/8 errors/44 attempts).

Mueller led three Miners in double figures with 16 kills while Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) added 13 and Zellmer finished with 12. Allie Plunk (Hurst, Texas/Birdville) dished out 45 assists and Jackie Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield) had a match-high 21 digs.
Kelsey Wagner led William Jewell with 13 kills and was joined in double figures by Libby Ording with 11. Amy Lindhorst handed out 34 assists while Cody Winslow had 16 digs.

S&T returns to action next Thursday taking part in its fourth straight GLVC Tournament. The Miners will take on Lewis University, the second seed from the East Division, at 4 p.m.