Rolla, Mo. – Missouri S&T's volleyball team closes out the regular season with three matches this week beginning on Tuesday evening at Drury at 7 p.m. The Miners travel to St. Louis this weekend for matches against Missouri-St. Louis on Friday at 7 p.m. and conclude the regular season on Saturday at Maryville at 1 p.m.
With a win on Tuesday S&T will clinch a berth in the GLVC Tournament for the fifth straight year and second place in the GLVC's West Division. The Miners currently have a two-game lead over Drury for the second spot in the division with the top three teams from each division securing automatic berths.
S&T split its two matches last weekend dropping a tough five set match at McKendree. The Miners dropped the first two sets before rallying to win sets three and four to force a fifth set but couldn't quite complete the comeback losing the finale 15-9. On Saturday S&T swept past Illinois Springfield to win its 20
th match of the season and it marks the third time in the last five seasons the program has won at least 20 matches.
Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) and
Krista Haslag (Linn, Mo./Helias ) continue to pace the Miner offensive attack averaging 3.11 and 3.00 kills per set respectively.
Gracey Moon (Kirkwood, Mo./Kirkwood) recorded 25 kills this past weekend recording 10 against McKendree and then hit an astounding .882 percent with 15 kills against zero errors in 17 chances at Illinois Springfield. Moon is currently averaging 2.32 kills per set.
Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) runs an offense that is averaging nearly 13 kills per set and she is dishing out an average of 9.75 assists per set. Defensively, S&T is averaging over 17.5 digs per set and is led by
Jackie Pyles (White Lake, Mich./West Bloomfield) with 5.44 digs/set. She is second in the GLVC in digs per set and in total digs. The Miners rank second in the GLVC in blocking averaging 2.36 per set and are led by Haslag with 1.4 per set which is also second in the conference.
Drury enters Tuesday's contest with a record of 19-9, 9-6 in the GLVC after splitting a pair of matches last weekend. The Panthers defeated Illinois Springfield in four sets last Friday before getting swept at McKendree on Saturday. Drury is 9-1 at home this season with its lone loss being a five-setter against Quincy on Oct. 23.
The Panthers are averaging 14 kills/set and have an attack percentage of .197. They're led by BJ Specht who's averaging 3.50 kills per set which is second in the conference. Brooke Antenen and Laynie Timmons are averaging 2.77 and 2.64 kills/set respectively. Antenen is the primary setter averaging 8.73 assists/set. McKenna Poynter is the leader on the defensive side of the ball digging up 474 attacks for an average of 4.84 per set.
Missouri-St. Louis enters Tuesday's match at Maryville having won three of its last four and are a game under .500 at 14-15, 7-8 in the GLVC. The Tritons still have an outside shot at the conference but need to win out and get some help to secure one of the two wild card spots.
Gina Pezze leads the UMSL attack averaging 2.80 kills/set while Maddy Russell, Hannah Miller and Jessica Ploss are all contributing over 2.00 kills/set as well. Lindsay Meyer runs the Triton offense dishing out 7.37 assists/set while Madyson Abeyta is averaging 4.25 per set. Defensively, Alivia Brinker is averaging 4.05 digs per set and Erin Walker is averaging nearly 3.5 per frame.
Maryville begins a three-match homestand when it welcomes UMSL to Moloney Arena on Tuesday evening. The Saints are 12-16 overall and 4-11 in GLVC action. Maryville split a pair of matches last weekend dropping a four set match at Southern Indiana and then defeated Bellarmine in five on Saturday.
The Saints have an attack percentage of .176 and are averaging 12.4 kills per set while allowing opponents to hit .193 and average almost 13 kills per set. Maddie Timmerman leads three players averaging over 2.00 kills/set with 2.71 while Laura Welling is averaging 2.45 and Ashley Selman is averaging 2.36. Taryn Trubich is the primary setter handing out over 8.5 assists/set while Ali Lampen leads the GLVC in digs/set with 5.88 per frame.
