Springfield, Ill. – The Missouri S&T Miners reached the 20 win plateau for the third time in the last five years with a 3-0 (25-12, 25-19, 25-20) win at Illinois Springfield on Saturday afternoon. Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) finished with a match high 15 kills to lead S&T as it bounced back from a tough five set loss on Friday.

The Miners (20-9, 11-4 GLVC) gave up the first point of the match before scoring the next five and didn't look back as it cruised to the opening set win. They led by as many as 10 points and didn't let the Prairie Stars (5-23, 2-13 GLVC) get any closer than five points the remainder of the set.

S&T hit a blistering .552 percent recording 19 kills against just three errors in 29 swings while on the defensive side of the ball it held the Stars to a .094 attack percentage.

S&T trailed for a majority of the second set and were down 18-13 when it used its second timeout of the set. Out of the timeout the Miners roared back finishing the set on a 12-1 run as Moon and Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) teamed up for four kills and were able to take advantage of six UIS mistakes to take set 25-19 and the commanding 2-0 lead.

After the intermission the Prairie Stars opened the third stanza on a 6-2 before S&T came back to take a 7-6 lead after a kill from Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic). UIS would even things at 7-7 on a kill by Nikki Madoch then the Miners proceeded to go on a 10-2 run to take control of the set. The Stars didn't get go away without a fight though cutting the S&T lead to 23-20 before S&T closed it out.

The Miners finished the match with a season-high hitting percentage of .391 (47 kills/11 errors/92 total attacks). Moon led all players with her 15 kills while Combs had 10 and Haslag added nine. Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) dished out 40 assists and Jackie Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield) dug up 11 attacks.

S&T's defense held UIS to a .106 attack percentage (28 kills/18 errors/94 total attacks). Madoch led a balanced Prairie Star attack with eight kills, Ashley Beaton added seven kills and Alyssa Hasler finished with five kills. Lexi Hall handed out 15 assists while Beaton finished with 10 digs.

The Miners continue their five match roadtrip on Tuesday traveling to Springfield, Mo., to take on Drury at 7 p.m.