Kirksville, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Miner volleyball squad was three points away from a commanding 2-0 lead in its lead at Truman State but couldn't close it out and ended up falling in five sets to the Bulldogs on Saturday evening in Kirksivlle, Mo. The Miners (8-15, 3-8 GLVC) were their own worst enemy committing 34 attack errors in the contest and hit into 10 total blocks.

S&T trailed 15-11 midway through the opening before going on a 10-3 run to grab a 21-18 lead after an attack error by Emma Berthold. Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South), Carson Talley (St. Louis, Mo./Affton) and Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) combined for seven kills in that run. Truman (9-14, 7-4 GLVC) silenced the run momentarily on kill by Jasmine Brown but the Miners weren't going to be denied scoring four of the last six points to win the opener 25-21.

S&T led by as many as seven points in the second set but were unable to close out the Bulldogs as it was outscored down the stretch 11-1 allowing Truman to even the match at 1-1 with the 25-22 win. The Miners didn't do themselves any favors committing six errors in that set changing run.

After the intermission, S&T came out strong to begin set three building a 17-11 lead thanks to four straight errors by the Bulldogs. Truman bounced back with an 8-2 run to tie the frame at 19 on a kill from Kayla Bastian. The two sides swapped the next four points and were tied at 21 when the Miners rattled off the final four points getting three kills from Talley and one from Combs to win 25-21 and take the 2-1 match advantage.

S&T fell behind by five points early in set four but was able to trim the lead to 9-7 but the Bulldogs countered with a 7-2 run building a seven point advantage. The Miners put together another run to cut the Truman lead to 19-18 after a kill from Combs, but were unable to take the lead as the Bulldogs ran off six of the final nine points to extend the match to a fifth set with the 25-21 victory.

S&T grabbed an early three-point cushion in set five and forced Truman to take an early timeout. The Bulldogs countered with four straight points forcing the Miners to use a timeout at the changeover. Ashley Allegri (Leawood, Kan./Shawnee Mission East) brought S&T back level with a kill but Truman scored four of the next five points to grab a 12-9 lead and forced the Miners to use their second timeout. S&T battled back with three straight points thanks to a kill from Combs and back-to-back Bulldog errors to tie it at 12.

The Miners couldn't get over the hump as back-to-back errors by Eva Mich (St. Peters, Mo./Francis Howell Central) and Caroline Dykes (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence) set Truman up with three match points. S&T staved off one of the set points with a kill from Friedlund but were unable to tie it up as Bastian ended the match with a kill giving the Bulldogs the 15-13 set win.

Combs finished with a match-high 20 kills to lead three Miners in double figures. Talley and Friedlund added 16 and 12 kills respectively. Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) dished out 59 assists and Cydney Denning (San Antonio, Texas/Brandeis ) added a career-high 35 digs.

Bastian led three Truman with 14 kills and was joined in double figures by Brown with 13 and Lacey Hill added 11. Savvy Hughes distributed 38 assists while Lauren Wacker had 25 digs.

S&T continues its four match roadtrip next Friday traveling to Evansville, Ind., to take on Southern Indiana in a 7 p.m. contest.