Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Miner volleyball squad returns home for its second five match homestand of the season beginning on Friday against Illinois Springfield at 7 p.m. S&T (9-16, 4-9 GLVC) looks to improve on its 1-4 home record and will try and move back towards .500 in GLVC action.
The Miners split a pair of four set matches last weekend snapping a three match losing streak with a win at Southern Indiana last Friday behind a balanced offensive attack led by
Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) 16 kills.
Kyley Thompson (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) and
Shelby Wagner (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit) added nine kills each and
Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) added seven more. S&T had its chances in the loss at Bellarmine on Saturday but were unable to capitalize on them. Combs, Friedlund and Wagner all finished in double figures in kills in the contest.
For the season the Miners are hitting .179 as a team and are averaging nearly 13 kills per set but have allowed their opposition to hit .200 percent with 13 kills per set. S&T has four players averaging over two kills per set led by Combs with 2.86. Friedlund is averaging 2.75 per set,
Carson Talley (St. Louis, Mo./Affton) is contributing 2.41 per set and
Caroline Dykes (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence) is recording 2.04 per set.
Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) continues to run the offense distributing almost 10 assists per set while on the defensive side of the ball
Corinne Stulce (St. Charles, Mo./Duchesne) leads the squad with 4.43 digs per set.
Illinois Springfield enters Friday's match with a mark of 9-17, 2-11 GLVC after picking up its first two conference wins of the season last weekend. The Prairie Stars stunned Missouri-St. Louis with a four set victory and then swept Maryville the following day. The Stars are in the midst of a three match roadtrip that takes them to Drury and McKendree before finishing the season at home next weekend against Southern Indiana and Bellarmine.
As a team, UIS has an attack percentage of .182 percent and is averaging 11.7 kills per set but is allowing its opponents to hit slightly better at .189 percent and 12.4 kills per set. Alyssa Hasler leads the squad with 2.36 kills per set while Tiffany Sunderlin is dropping in 2.06 per set. The Prairie Stars run a two setter system with Lexi Hall and Tiffany Wentworth splitting the time. Hall is averaging 5.65 assists per set and Wentworth is averaging 4.34 per set. Defensively, the Stars are led by Kayla Katarzynski with 3.80 digs per set and Jailyn Borum is averaging 3.18 digs per set.
McKendree enters Friday's match at Drury with a mark of 16-9 overall, 11-2 in the GLVC, winners of three of its last four and currently sit in second place in the GLVC's Eastern Division. The Bearcats picked up a pair of sweeps last weekend over Maryville and Missouri-St. Louis.
McKendree is one of the top offensive teams in the conference ranking third with an attack percentage of .232 and is averaging 13.4 kills per set which ranks fourth. Arela Williams leads the Bearcat attack with 3.55 kills per set and is second in the GLVC. Allison Schneider is second on the squad with 2.9 kills per set and Sophie Fairman is averaging 2.3 kills per set. Morgan Melchert and Aubry Dickmann have split time at the setter position and are averaging 5.62 and 5.31 assists per set respectively. Williams also leads the team in digs with 3.28 per set.
The homestand continues next Tuesday with a visit from the Drury Panthers for a 7 p.m. contest. The Miners fell to Drury in four sets in Springfield about a month ago. The Panthers enter this weekend's action with a record of 17-9, 8-5 in the GLVC after going 1-1 last weekend.
Drury has a team attack percentage of .201 and are averaging 13.1 kills per set while allowing its opposition to hit just .173 percent and average 11.4 kills per set. Brooke Antenen leads the team in kills per set with 2.86 and in assists per set with 6.35. McKenna Poynter leads the way on the defensive side of the ball averaging nearly 5.3 digs per set.
