St. Louis, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Miners held off Missouri-St. Louis for a thrilling 3-2 (15-25, 30-28, 25-20, 15-25, 15-8) win at the Mark Twain Building on Friday night in St. Louis. With the win S&T clinched a spot in the GLVC Tournament for the fifth straight year. Shelby Wagner (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit) recorded a career-high 16 kills to lead the Miners.

S&T (21-10, 12-5 GLVC) got out of the gates fast in the opening set taking a 5-1 lead. The Tritons (15-16, 8-9 GLVC) answered with a 9-1 run of their own to take the lead for good. The Miners closed to within 12-10 before UMSL went on another long run to push the lead out to eight points. S&T hit -.070 in the opening frame while the Tritons hit .194 percent.

The second set saw 11 ties and six lead changes as the Miners held the lead for a majority of the set. S&T held a three-point lead late in the stanza only to watch UMSL come back to take a 24-23 lead. The Miners got back-to-back kills from Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) and Jackie Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield) to regain the lead at 25-24 and set up set point. The Tritons countered with two straight points of their own for their second set point of the frame and forced S&T to take a timeout. Out of the timeout Haslag registered a kill to tie it at 26 and then the two sides traded points until a Carly Ochs kill gave UMSL a 28-27 lead. The Miners closed the set scoring the last three points getting a pair of kills from Wagner to even the match.

The Tritons scored the first two points of set three but after that neither side held more than a two-point lead until halfway through the stanza. With the set tied at 14, S&T went on an 8-3 run to build a five point cushion. Wagner had three kills in the run while Haslag and Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) added one each. UMSL wouldn't get closer than five points the rest of the set as the Miners took the swing set 25-20.

The Tritons used a 9-3 run early in the fourth set to break a 7-all tie and wouldn't look back on their way to a 25-15 win to force the fifth and deciding set. UMSL hit .286 percent in the stanza while holding S&T to .000 hitting percentage. Ochs led the Tritons with five kills in the frame while Gina Pezee and Maddy Russell had three kills apiece.

In the finale the Miners used a 6-1 run to pull away after a pair of early ties. They led by as many as seven in the frame and hit .273 percent in the frame while holding UMSL to -.074 hitting percentage. Moon had three kills in the stanza while Wagner added two.

S&T finished the match recording 64 kills and had three players in double figures led by Wagner. Haslag and Moon finished with 13 kills each. Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) had a double-double with 50 assists and 18 digs while Jackie Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield) dug up 27 attacks. The Miners finished the match with 13 total blocks led by Moon with eight.

The Tritons finished the match outhitting S&T .140-to-.135 but recorded 10 fewer kills and had 15 fewer total attacks. Ochs led three UMSL players in double figures with 13 kills while Jessica Ploss and Russell had 12 and 11 kills respectively. Lindsay Meyer dished out 42 assists and Erin Walker had a match-high 38 digs.

The Miners conclude the regular season on Saturday afternoon at Maryville University beginning at 1 p.m. With a win over the Saints S&T will clinch second place in the GLVC's West Division.