Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Miner volleyball squad returns home on Friday to begin a three-match homestand starting with the Rockhurst Hawks at 7 p.m. The homestand continues on Saturday with a visit from William Jewell and concludes next Tuesday in a non-conference match against Missouri Baptist.
S&T (5-10, 2-5 GLVC) went 2-3 on its recently completed five match roadtrip and look forward to returning home after the two and a half week roadswing. The Miners have only played two home matches this season and hope the return home can help them build momentum for the second half of the season.
Carson Talley (St. Louis, Mo./Affton) has been one of the hot hands offensively for S&T averaging nearly four kills per set in her last three matches and has moved up to second on the squad in kills with 127 behind
Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South)'s 152 kills. Talley has reached double figures in kills her last three matches and had a career-high 20 kills in the loss at Missouri-St. Louis last Saturday. She also has a hitting percentage of nearly 35 percent in those contests.
Rockhurst enters Friday's contest with a record of 12-4 overall, 6-1 in the GLVC and have won four in a row after sweeping William Jewell at home on Tuesday evening. The Hawks are receiving votes in this week's AVCA Top 25 Coaches Poll.
As a team, Rockhurst has an attack percentage of .237 and is averaging 13.5 kills per set. It's also been good on the defensive side of the ball averaging 19 digs and 1.7 blocks per set. Alyssa Woodman leads a balanced offensive attack with 3.17 kills per set while Morgan Rietzke and Mattie Gray are contributing 3.10 kills/set. Lily Thornburg and Grace Carter have split time running the offense with Thornburg averaging nearly eight assists per set and Carter has handed out 5.25 assists per set. Defensively, Anne Hellwege leads the charge with 5.18 digs per set and Katie Arnold is digging up 3.32 balls per set.
William Jewell got off to a great start this season winning nine of their first 14 contests before going on a three match losing streak. The Cardinals (9-8, 3-4 GLVC) have been swept in three straight matches heading into Friday's contest at Drury.
As a team, Jewell is hitting only .162 percent and is averaging just 11.5 kills per set but has had success with its defense averaging nearly two blocks and 16 digs per set. Paige Cunningham leads the club with 2.82 kills per set while Grace Miller is adding 1.94 kills/set. Alix Weigel and Amy Lindhorst are the primary setters for the team averaging 5.56 and 3.52 assists per set respectively. On the defensive side of the ball, Olivia Tolberd is averaging five digs per set and Grace Miller has 50 total blocks.
Next Tuesday, the Miners will take a break from conference play to take on the Spartans of Missouri Baptist University. The Spartans are currently 19-4, 8-0 in the American Midwest Conference and have won 11 matches in a row heading into this weekend's Spartan Invitational.
Missouri Baptist is hitting .271 as a team and averaging over 14 kills per set. It's led by Mallory Dillon and Kristina Medanovic who are averaging 4.56 and 3.07 kills per set respectively. Megan Huffman runs the offensive handing out nearly 11.5 assists per set while the defense is led by Natalie Gremaud with 4.34 digs per set.
