Springfield, Mo. – Missouri S&T struggled to get on track all night as it was swept at Drury
3-0 (16-25, 17-25, 19-25) on Tuesday night at the O'Reilly Family Events Center. The Miners (20-10, 11-5 GLVC) couldn't slow down the Panther (20-9, 10-6 GLVC) offense allowing them to hit 39.3 percent for the match.
Drury opened the match with a 7-1 run and didn't look back as it never allowed S&T to get closer than four points during the set. The Panthers led by as many as nine in the frame and hit .469 percent. Brooke Antenen and BJ Specht combined for 11 of the team's 19 kills.
The second set was tied at 1-1 early when Drury broke it open with six straight points. The Miners cut the lead to 15-10 after a kill from
Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) but that would be the closest they got as the Panthers used an 8-2 run building an 11-point lead. S&T rallied off three straight points to get within 24-17 before Antenen ended the stanza with a kill.
The third set began just like the first two as Drury scored six of the first seven points before the Miners closed to within 6-4. The Panthers used another long run to extend the lead to nine points halfway through the stanza. S&T cut the deficit to three a couple of different times but were unable to get any closer.
The Miners were held to 35 kills and hit just .204 percent for the match. The 35 kills were the second lowest of the season. Haslag led S&T with 11 kills while
Shelby Wagner (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit) added six kills.
Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) and
Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) had five kills each.
Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) handed out 31 assists and
Jackie Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield) had 15 digs.
Antenen finished with a triple-double recording 15 kills with 31 assists and 12 digs. Bentley Mara added 11 kills while Specht finished with eight. McKenna Poynter and Antenen finished with 12 digs apiece. The .393 hitting percentage was a season-high allowed by the Miners.
S&T returns to action on Friday night when it travels to St. Louis to take on the Tritons of Missouri-St. Louis at 7 p.m. at the Mark Twain Center.
