Lebanon, Ill. – Missouri S&T nearly came back from a 2-0 deficit but the comeback came up short as it fell in a five sets at McKendree 3-2 (20-25, 17-25, 25-21, 25-21, 15-9) on Friday evening in Lebanon, Ill. Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) recorded nine kills and became Missouri S&T's career leader in that category with 1,248 kills.

The Miners (19-9, 10-4 GLVC) struggled to get its offense going in the first two sets recording just 20 kills against 11 errors in 78 swings and had an attack percentage of .115. S&T had no answer for McKendree's (18-9, 12-2 GLVC) Arela Williams in the opening two frames as she recorded 14 kills against two errors in 24 swings.

S&T led 14-12 in the opener before the Bearcats went on a 6-1 run to take control of the set. The Miners wouldn't get closer than two points the rest of the stanza as McKendree pulled away for the five point win.

The Bearcats got out to an early lead in the second stanza and wouldn't look back building a seven-point advantage and cruised to an eight point victory.

After the intermission, S&T was able to overcome an early deficit building a three-point lead by the midway point of the frame. McKendree rallied to take an 18-17 lead after an error by Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic). The Miners responded scoring six of the next seven points to grab a four point lead. The 'Cats got to within 23-21 on another kill from Williams, but S&T scored the final two points of the stanza to extend the match.

S&T led for a majority of the fourth set building a four point lead on multiple occasions. However, McKendree made a late rally getting to within 21-20 after back-to-back kills from Allison Schneider forcing the Miners to call a timeout. After the timeout the Miners were able to close out the frame on a 4-1 run on two kills from Combs and one from Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) to force a winner take all fifth set.

In the finale S&T scored three of the first four points to take an early lead, but the Bearcats countered with a 7-2 run to take control of the set. The Miners cut the deficit to two after a kill from Moon but were unable to get any closer as McKendree ended the match scoring seven of the last 10 points to win 15-9.

S&T finished the match with an attack percentage of .121 (48 kills/26 errors/182 total attacks). Combs led the Miners with 12 kills while Moon chipped in with 10. Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) dished out 29 assists and Jackie Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield) dug up 17 attacks.

The Bearcats finished the match with a .175 hitting percentage registering 69 kills against 34 errors in 200 chances. Williams had a match-high 24 kills while Sophie Fairman and Schneider added 13 and 12 kills respectively. Aubry Dickmann distributed 31 assists and Ashley Schmitt had a match-high 31 digs.

S&T is back in action on Saturday afternoon when it travels to Springfield, Ill., to take on Illinois Springfield at 3 p.m.