Aurora, Ill. – The Missouri S&T Miners had a hard time containing the Findlay Oiler attack in the first two sets of its 3-1 (23-25, 16-25, 25-13, 21-25) loss at the Midwest Region Crossover in Aurora, Ill., on Friday evening. The Oilers had three players finish in double figures in kills while S&T had two and narrowly missed a third.

Just like its morning session S&T (15-7) fell behind early and had to play catchup the rest of the set. The Oilers (15-4) led by as many as seven in the frame before the Miners began to chip away at the lead. They cut the lead to two on a couple of occasions but each time Findlay would counter and extend the margin.

The Oilers took a 24-21 lead on a kill by Amanda Winner and had three set points before S&T rallied to within one after an error by Hannah Tong. Tong gave Findlay the opener with her sixth kill of the set.

The Miners trailed for a majority of the second set as the Oilers built a 10 point lead and held off a late charge to win 25-16 and take the commanding 2-0 lead. S&T hit a respectable .208 for the set but Findlay had a blistering attack percentage of .565.

The Oilers held an early lead in set three but the tables flipped in the Miners favor with Findlay holding an 11-9 lead. S&T ripped off a 13-0 run to take control of the set as the Oilers struggled to put balls in play committing eight straight errors to key the run. Ellen Schulz (Wildwood, Mo./Eureka) and Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) had a pair of blocks in the run as well.

The fourth frame was a see-saw affair with neither side holding bigger than a three point lead. The Miners raced out to an early lead only two to see Findlay and eventually take a three-point lead of its own.
S&T was able to even the set four different times but was never quite able to get over the hump as the Oilers were able to hold them off. The Miners were within striking distance at 21-20 but Findlay finished the match scoring four of the final five points to win 25-21.

S&T finished the contest with an attack percentage of .309 (45kills/15 errors/97 total attacks). Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) and Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) paced the Miner attack with 11 kills each while Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) contributed nine to the attack. Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) dished 23 assists and Jackie Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield) dug up 17 attacks.

The Oilers had a .280 hitting percentage for the match (56k/21e/125ta) and were led by Tong with 19 kills while Winner and former Miner Andrea Roach had 10 kills apiece. Hailee Olson dished out 48 assists and Becca Shoemaker had nine digs.

S&T concludes play in the Midwest Region Crossover on Saturday afternoon against Grand Valley State beginning at 1 p.m.