Aurora, Ill. – The Missouri S&T Miners picked up its second straight win on Friday defeating the Tiffin Dragons in a five set thriller at the ninth annual Midwest Region Crossover. The Miners had picked up a straight set win over Alderson Broaddus earlier in the day.

S&T (8-12) used a strong opening set hitting .345 with 12 kills in 29 chances pulling away midway through to take the opener 25-18. The Miners led by as many seven but the Dragons (11-9) trimmed the deficit to 21-18 before S&T finished it off scoring the final four points. Kyley Thompson (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) and Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) combined for seven of the 12 kills in the stanza.

The Miners raced out to an early lead in the second frame scoring four of the first five points but were unable to maintain the lead as Tiffin used a 9-1 run to take the lead for good. S&T trimmed the lead to 11-9 before the Dragons used another 6-1 run to extend the lead to 17-10 on a kill by Danielle Hicks. The Miners wouldn't get closer than three points the rest of the stanza as Tiffin hit .368 percent in the frame to even it a set apiece.

The swing set saw nine ties and five lead changes and was tied at 14 when S&T began to take control. A kill from Caroline Dykes (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence) sparked a 5-1 run to give the Miners a lead wouldn't relinquish as they went onto win 25-17. Dykes and Thompson combined for eight of S&T's 12 kills in the set.

Tiffin used an 11-2 run early in set four to build a nine point advantage by the midway point and didn't look back on its way to a 25-14 win and forced the winner take all finale. The Miners had no answer for the Dragon attack as they hit nearly 45 percent in the frame and had 16 kills.

In the finale, Tiffin scored six of the first eight points and forced S&T to take an early timeout. Out of the timeout the Miners responded scoring six straight points thanks to three Dragon errors. S&T held a 9-8 lead when Tiffin got back-to-back kills from Jenna Huffman and Kasey Adelsperger to grab a 10-9 lead.

The Miners responded with a kill from Dykes and a Dragon error to retake the lead. The two sides traded service errors to keep S&T in front 12-11. A kill by Huffman leveled the set at 12 but the Miners were able to close out with three straight points getting a kill from Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) and back-to-back kills from Carson Talley (St. Louis, Mo./Affton) to win 15-12.

S&T finished the match hitting .220 recording 52 kills against 16 errors in 164 chances. The Miner block finished with eight total blocks. Thompson and Dykes led the way with 12 kills each while Talley added 11 more. Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) dished out 46 assists and Corinne Stulce (St. Charles, Mo./Duchesne) had 14 digs.

Tiffin hit .241 percent for the match and had 66 kills against 27 errors in 162 chances. Olivia Cobb led the Dragons with 20 kills while Huffman had 14, Adelsperger dropped in 12 and Hicks added 11. Emily Weithman handed out 54 assists and Taylor Lattimore had 32 digs.

S&T concludes play in the Midwest Crossover on Saturday taking on Ashland University at 1 p.m.