Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 (St. Paul, Minn.) – The Missouri S&T Miner volleyball team dropped a pair of contests to the seventh ranked Southwest Minnesota State Mustangs 3-0 (18-25, 17-25, 24-26) and to top ranked Concordia University, St. Paul 3-1 (14-25, 8-25, 25-22, 13-25) on Saturday.

S&T (1-3) was led in the opening match by sophomore Allie Plunk (Hurst, Texas/Birdville) who nearly recorded the second triple-double in Miner volleyball history. Plunk finished the contest with nine kills, 21 assists and 12 digs. Plunk hit .615 for the match and accounted for a quarter of the team's kills. The rest of the team struggled to get things going as the Mustangs (2-2) recorded eight blocks at the net.

SMSU hit .258 for the match and had three players reach double figures in kills led by Abby Thissen with 11 while Sarah Parker and Whitney Burmeister added 10 each.
In the nightcap on Saturday the Miners hung with the number one team in the country for the first half of the opening set. S&T held a 13-12 advantage before the Golden Bears (4-0) went on a 13-1 run the rest of the way to take the set. CUSP dominated the second set hitting .400 with 14 kills against two errors in 30 chances on its way to the 25-8 victory.

The Miners bounced back in the third set recording 17 kills in 40 chances against three errors to hit .350. They held a 21-18 lead late in the set only to see the Golden Bears score four straight points to regain the lead at 22-21. However, S&T refused to fold and scored the final four points of the frame to force a fourth set. Alison Mueller (Bartelso, Ill./Mater Dei ) and Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) teamed up for three kills in the decisive run.

Concordia-St. Paul raced out to an early lead in the fourth set and wouldn't look back as it led by as many as 12 in the frame.
Mueller led S&T with nine kills while Haslag and Jackie Zellmer (Nixa, Mo./Nixa) had seven kills apiece. Plunk dished out 25 assists while Jackie Pyles (West Bloomfield, Mich./West Bloomfield) had 20 digs.

The Golden Bears were led by Emma Lange with 22 kills. She was one of four players in double figures joined by Heather Schiller with 12 while Mariya Sampson and Anna Schlaak had 10 each. Kasey Williams distributed 49 assists and Lisa Atkinson finished with 16 digs.

The Miners open the home portion of their schedule this coming Tuesday night against Columbia College at 7 pm.