Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Miner volleyball team begins a five match road trip this weekend at McKendree and Illinois Springfield. The Miners head to Lebanon, Ill., on Friday night to square off against the Bearcats at 7 p.m. and then on Saturday head to Springfield for a matchup with the Prairie Stars of Illinois Springfield at 3 p.m.
S&T (19-8, 10-3 GLVC) will have a challenge on its hands Friday with McKendree (17-9, 11-2 GLVC) who has won four of its last five matches and are 6-1 at home this season. The Miners bring a four match winning streak into Friday's contest and currently sit second in the GLVC West Division standings.
Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) and
Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) continue to pace the S&T offense averaging 3.14 and 3.06 kills per set respectively. Haslag recorded 32 kills this past weekend and is five kills shy of setting the school's career record.
Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) continues to spread the ball around distributing 9.84 assists per set while
Jackie Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield) leads the conference in total digs with 565 and is second with 5.59 digs/set.
McKendree is averaging 13.4 kills per set and is led by Arela Williams with an average of 3.37 per set. Allison Schneider is averaging 2.59 kill/set and Sophie Fairman is adding 2.45 per set. Aubry Dickmann and Morgan Melchert are the primary setters with Dickmann handing out 6.25 assists per set and Melchert is passing out 5.13 assists/set. On the defensive side of the ball the Bearcats are holding opponents to .153 attack percentage, averaging 2.13 blocks/set and have dug up 1,607 attacks for an average of 15.75. Williams leads the way averaging 3.40 digs/set while Ashly Schmitt is averaging 3.18 digs/set.
Illinois Springfield (5-21, 2-11 GLVC) has lost six in a row overall and eight straight GLVC matches heading into Friday's contest against Drury. This past weekend the Prairie Stars were swept in road matches at Maryville and Missouri-St. Louis.
As a team UIS is averaging 10.1 kills per set and has an attack percentage of .129. It's led offensively by Ashley Beaton and Nikki Madoch who are averaging 2.51 and 2.14 kills per set respectively. Tiffany Wentworth has dished out 5.24 assists/set while Lexi Hall is averaging 4.03 assists/set. Defensively the Prairie Stars are led by Kayla Katarzynski with 3.50 digs/set while Alyssa Hasler leads the team in blocking with 1.00 per set.
