Rolla, Mo. – Missouri S&T came up on the short end of a hard fought five set match against Drury on Tuesday evening at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building. The Miners (10-18, 5-11 GLVC) nearly overcame a six-point deficit in set five but were unable to complete the comeback.

S&T used a 6-0 run midway through the opener to build a seven point lead over the Panthers (20-9, 10-6 GLVC) getting a pair of kills from Kyley Thompson (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) and a double block from Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) and Carson Talley (St. Louis, Mo./Affton). Drury rallied with a 5-0 to cut the Miner lead to 22-21 after a double block from Bentley Mara and Tori Foster forcing S&T to call a timeout. The two sides exchanged points before the Miners put it away on a kill from Combs and an attack error by Sarah Kite to win 25-22.

The second set went back-and-forth with neither side holding bigger than a three-point cushion. The Panthers held a 22-19 lead and appeared to be on their way to evening the match when S&T rattled off three straight points to square the frame at 22 on a Drury error. The Panthers took a 24-22 lead on a kill from Foster and a Miner error before Emilee Schlader (Lewiston, Idaho/Lewiston) brought S&T back to within 24-23. Foster ended the set on the next rally giving Drury the 25-23 win and evened the match at a set apiece.

The third set saw 18 ties and seven lead changes as the two sides battled each other point-for-point. The Miners had a chance to win the set with a set point three different times but were unable to put a ball away as the Panthers took advantage of back-to-back errors by S&T to win 29-27.

The Miners trailed by as many as six in set four before staging a late rally scoring the last six points of the set to win 25-21 and force the winner take all fifth set. Combs and Caroline Dykes (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence) combined for eight of S&T's 14 kills in the frame and the Miners also had three total blocks in the stanza compared to just one for Drury.

S&T gave up the first two points in the finale before coming back to tie things up at 6 after a service error by Audrey Engelman. The Miners couldn't take advantage though as Caitlin Brocker (Crystal Lake, Ill./Marian Central ) committed a service error on the next point and the Panthers would go on a 6-0 run to grab a 12-6 lead. S&T pushed back with a 5-1 run to close to within 13-11 but a block by Brooke Antenen gave Drury set and match point leading 14-11. The Miners staved off two set points as the Panthers committed an error and Thompson added her 12^th kill of the match to make it 14-13. After a wild scramble, Drury ended the match on a kill from Emmalee Chrest to win 15-13.

S&T finished the match hitting .141 percent recording 63 kills against 34 errors in 206 swings. Thompson was joined in double figures by Combs with 16 kills and Dykes added 14 kills. Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) handed out 52 assists and Cydney Denning (San Antonio, Texas/Brandeis ) added 27 digs.

Drury had a slightly better attack percentage at .146 also recording 63 kills but made one fewer error in 205 chances. Antenen finished the match with a triple-double recording 18 kills, 27 assists and 19 digs. She was joined in double figures by Foster with 11 kills and Kite added 10 kills. McKenna Poynter finished with a match-high 29 digs.

The Miners are back at home on Friday to take on Missouri-St. Louis in a 7 p.m. contest at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.