Box Score (St. Paul, Minn.) – The Missouri S&T Lady Miners opened their 2014 season dropping a hard fought five set match to 17^th ranked Wheeling Jesuit (W.V.) 3-2 (26-24, 23-25, 26-24, 17-25, 13-15) at the Radisson Hotel Roseville Volleyball Classic hosted by Concordia-St. Paul. The Miners had three players record double figures in kills led by Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) with 20 in her S&T debut.

The match was tightly contested throughout with 57 ties and 28 lead changes. The Miners finished the contest recording 65 kills against 23 errors for a hitting percentage of .180. Wheeling Jesuit recorded 75 kills against 27 errors to finish the match with a hitting percentage of .211.

S&T held a 2-1 lead in the match going into the fourth set, but were unable to close it out as the Cardinals pulled away halfway through the set to force a fifth and deciding game. In that final set WJU scored five of the first eight points, but the Miners went on an 8-4 run to take the lead at 11-9. After a timeout Wheeling Jesuit scored two straight to even the match, but S&T countered that run with two of their own to regain the lead. The Cardinals though ran off the final four points of the set to take the match 15-13.

Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) and Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) joined Friedlund in double figures with 16 and 12 kills respectively. Allie Plunk (Hurst, Texas/Birdville) dished out 48 assists while Jackie Pyles (West Bloomfield, Mich./West Bloomfield) had 29 digs.

Jesscia Thobe led all players with a match-high 23 kills and was one of four WJU players in double figures. She was joined by Haley Kindall with 20, Kaycee Krucki had 14 while Emma Schleucher added 13. Andrea Thobe distributed 65 assists and Makenzie Ripley dug 31 balls.