Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Miners had a golden opportunity to pull an upset on Rockhurst holding a 24-20 lead in set two after winning the opening 26-24, but the Hawks scored the final six points of the stanza to take the 26-24 and went on to win the final two sets handing the Miners a 3-1 loss on Friday night in Rolla.

S&T (5-11, 2-6) raced out of the gates scoring eight of the first 11 points to begin the match and forced Rockhurst (13-4, 7-1 GLVC) to take an early timeout. The Hawks cut into the deficit with four straight points but the Miners stretched the lead back to four points at 15-11 on a kill from Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic).

Rockhurst countered with a 6-1 run to take its first lead of the match at 17-16 on a Morgan Rietzke kill. The two sides then went back-and-forth until Caroline Dykes (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence) registered a kill to give S&T a set point at 24-23. Mattie Gray evened the match on the next point with a kill but the Miners would go onto win the set 26-24 on a kill by Dykes and a double block by Dykes and Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South).

S&T fell behind early in the second frame but quickly recovered and had a six-point lead midway through the stanza. The Hawks began to chip away at the lead getting it to 17-15 but the Miners pushed the lead to 22-15 thanks to a 5-0 spurt. Dykes recorded three of her seven kills in the set in that run.

Rockhurst cut the lead to 23-20 and forced S&T to use its second timeout of the set. After the timeout the Miners got a kill from Combs giving them a 24-20 lead and four set points. The Hawks used some great defense from their backline as S&T struggled to put a ball away and Rockhurst scored the final six points to even the match at a set apiece with the 26-24 win.

The third set was tightly contested with neither side having bigger than a two-point lead. The Miners trailed 18-17 after a service error and had a chance to square the frame but Gray knocked in a kill and an error on Dykes gave the Hawks a 20-17 lead. S&T got back-to-back kills from Combs and Dykes to close within 20-19 but couldn't get over the hump as Rockhurst ended the set scoring five of the last six points to win 25-20.

The fourth stanza was all Rockhurst as it built a five-point lead early before the Miners closed to within 12-10 on a kill by Dykes. That would be the closest S&T got as the Hawks used a 13-3 run down the stretch to win 25-13.

The Miners finished the match with an attack percentage of .132 (52 kills/25 errors/204 total attacks). Dykes led the team with 14 kills while Friedlund added 12 kills and Combs finished with nine. Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) handed out 45 assists and Corinne Stulce (St. Charles, Mo./Duchesne) had 25 digs.

Rietzke finished with a match-high 21 kills leading three Rockhurst players in double figures. Gray finished with 17 kills and Alyssa Woodman added 11 kills. Lily Thornburg and Grace Carter combined for 47 assists of the team's 61 assists while Anne Hellwege had a match-high 27 digs. The Hawks finished the match with a hitting percentage of .245.

S&T continues its three match homestand on Saturday taking on William Jewell at 3 p.m. at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.