Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Miners nearly dug themselves out of a 2-0 hole but couldn't quite complete an epic comeback in the fourth set falling to McKendree 3-1 on Saturday evening in Rolla. The Miners (10-17, 5-10 GLVC) trailed by as 12 points in set four and were down eight match points but ran off nine in a row to take a 25-24 lead before falling 27-25.
S&T got off to a slow start on Saturday as McKendree (18-9, 13-2 GLVC) scored nine of the first 13 points to begin the match and led by as many as nine points before the Miners trimmed the deficit to five late in the stanza on a kill from
Carson Talley (St. Louis, Mo./Affton). The Bearcats would go onto win the frame 25-19. S&T struggled to get its offense going in the opener hitting just .125 and committed six errors.
The Miners raced out to an early five-point lead in the second set but were unable to overcome a 12-3 run by McKendree and saw a two-point lead turn into a seven-point deficit. S&T trailed 16-15 and had a chance to tie the set but
Carson Talley (St. Louis, Mo./Affton) hit her service attempt long and the Bearcats took advantage scoring the next five points and cruised to the 25-16 win and took the 2-0 lead into the break.
The Miners led early in the third set but McKendree scratched its way back taking a 10-9 lead on a kill from Arela Williams. S&T responded with a 6-1 run to regain the lead as
Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) had a pair of kills in the run. The lead grew to 23-20 when the Bearcats got three straight kills from Allison Schneider to even the frame at 23 and forced the Miners to call timeout.
Shelby Wagner (Lee's Summit, Mo./Lee's Summit) but them back in front with a kill to give S&T a set point but Sophie Fairman answered with a kill to knot it back up. Schneider committed a service error to give the Miners a second set point and
Cydney Denning (San Antonio, Texas/Brandeis ) ended the set with a service ace giving S&T a 26-24 set win and cut the Bearcat lead in half.
McKendree opened the fourth frame scoring eight of the first nine points and appeared to be cruising building that 12-point cushion but the Miners refused to go away cutting the lead to seven late in the frame. A kill from Fairman gave the Bearcats match point at 24-16 when the Miner rally began. It started with a kill from
Caroline Dykes (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence) and back-to-back kills from
Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) and then attack error by Williams forcing a McKendree timeout. Another error from Williams and Friedlund kill made it 24-22 and then Talley and
Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) stuffed Williams at the net on back-to-back points to tie the set at 24. S&T grabbed a 25-24 lead and were poised to send the match to a fifth set but McKendree rattled off three straight points to end the contest.
The Miners finished the match hitting .158 registering 50 kills against 24 errors in 165 attempts and also had eight blocks as a team. Friedlund led three players in double figures with 12 kills while Combs and Talley dropped in 10 kills each. White dished out 37 assists and
Cydney Denning (San Antonio, Texas/Brandeis ) added 20 digs.
McKendree had an attack percentage of .263 in the match committing 23 errors in 167 swings but the difference was it had 17 more kills than S&T did. The Bearcats had three players finish in double figures led by Schneider and Williams with 17 each while Fairman added 16. Morgan Melchert finished with 31 assists while Alissa Zeitelhack had 22 digs.
The Miners continue their homestand on Tuesday hosting Drury in a 7 p.m. contest at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.
