Box Score (St. Paul, Minn.) – After dropping a hard fought five set match this morning to 17^th ranked Wheeling Jesuit the Missouri S&T Miners bounced back to defeat Ashland 3-1 (25-21, 25-17, 30-32, 25-15) on Friday evening at the Radisson Hotel Roseville Volleyball Classic hosted by Concordia-St. Paul University. Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) led four Miners in double figures with 18 kills.

S&T (1-1) stormed out of the gates scoring seven of the first eight points and wouldn't look back in building a nine-point lead. Ashland (0-2), who received 45 points in the AVCA Pre-Season Coaches' Poll, made things interesting with an 8-2 run to close the margin to three points at 22-19. The Miners regrouped scoring three of the next four points to get to set point. After an Eagle kill, Friedlund ended the set with her third kill of the frame.

S&T again raced out to an early lead in set two only to see Ashland rally and tie the set at 4-all. The Miners proceeded to score 17 of the next 26 points to take a commanding 21-13 lead. The Eagles wouldn't go quietly cutting the deficit to five, but S&T held firm scoring the final three points to take the second set 25-17.

The third set was the tightest of the four featuring 16 ties and eight lead changes. Ashland held the lead for the majority of the set before the Miners rallied late to keep extending the frame. Both sides had their opportunities to end the set with the Eagles going 1-for-5 on set points while S&T was 0-of-3 on match points. Ashland hung on getting the final two points to win 32-30 and force a fourth set.

If the Eagles had any momentum heading into the fourth set the Miners quickly swung it back in their favor with a 7-2 run to start the frame. S&T built its lead to eight points cruising the rest of the way to a 25-15 win. The Miners hit .452 in the final set led by Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias )'s six kills in eight attempts against no errors, Friedlund had five kills, Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa) added four kills and Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) was 3-for-3.

For the match, S&T recorded 59 kills against 26 errors for a hitting percentage of .201. Friedlund led the way while Moon finished with 13 kills, Haslag finished with 12 while Zellmer contributed 11 to the attack. Allie Plunk (Hurst, Texas/Birdville) dished out 51 assists and Dana Shannon (Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central) led the way with 17 digs.

Ashland was led offensively by Alli Cudworth with 21 kills and Casey Clark added 15. Katie Siefert and Jacqueline Tanguay had 24 assists apiece while Clark finished with 19 digs. The Eagles finished the match with a hitting percentage of .146 (54k/29e/171ta).

The Miners return to the court on Saturday taking on seventh ranked Southwest Minnesota State at 2:30 pm and top ranked Concordia-St. Paul at 7:30 pm.