Aurora, Ill. The Missouri S&T Miners overcame a slow start to sweep past Cedarville
3-0 (25-22, 25-9, 25-18) on Friday afternoon in the opening round of the 2015 Midwest Region Crossover at the Great Lakes Center in Aurora, Ill. The Miners (15-6) set a new school record with 27 assisted blocks in a three set match besting the previous record by seven which was set against Indianapolis in 2013 and then matched later that year against William Jewell.
S&T fell behind 17-11 in the opening set and had a hard to time shutting down the Yellow Jacket (11-9) attack. After their second timeout the Miners got going as
Claire Luther (St. Louis, Mo./Lutheran South) sparked an 8-0 run to give S&T its first lead of the set at 19-17. The Jackets responded with three straight points to regain the lead at 20-19.
The Miners overcame the deficit scoring six of the final eight points to take the opener 25-22 as
Carson Talley (St. Louis, Mo./Affton) finished the frame with an emphatic block at the net.
The second set was all S&T as it used an 11-0 run to extend a two-point lead to 13 midway through the frame. Defensively the Miners registered a total of seven blocks and held Cedarville to a negative .294 hitting percentage.
The third set was back-and-forth early before S&T began to pull away thanks to another long run. The Jackets would get as close as four but no closer as the Miners ended the match on a 7-4 run to secure the victory.
Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) led S&T with eight kills while
Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) and
Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) had seven apiece.
Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) had 21 assists,
Jackie Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield) had 20 digs and
Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) finished with nine total blocks. As a team the Miners finished the contest with .176 hitting percentage.
Abby Shelton led Cedarville with seven kills while Kristin Cardwell had 17 assists and Angela Becker dug up 12 attacks.
S&T plays Findlay at 5:30 p.m. in its second match on Friday at the Midwest Region Crossover.
