Rensselaer, Ind. – The Missouri S&T Miner Volleyball squad made it a clean sweep in more ways than one on Saturday afternoon. Roughly an hour after the Miner football picked up a win over the Puma football team the Miner volleyball squad swept the Pumas to earn their first GLVC win of the season in Rensselaer, Ind.

S&T (4-8, 1-3 GLVC) overcame a slow start to begin the match falling behind 4-0, but rallied with a 15-7 run to take a four point lead midway through the first set. The Miners extended the lead to 20-15 on a kill by Ellen Schulz (Wildwood, Mo./Eureka) which forced the Pumas (2-10, 0-4 GLVC) to take a timeout. After the timeout, Saint Joseph's evened the stanza thanks to five straight points and forced S&T to take a timeout. The two sides exchanged kills to keep it tied at 21-21 when S&T scored the final four points to take the opening set 25-21.

The second stanza started out like the opener with the Pumas scoring the first five points and forced the Miners to play from behind once again. S&T proceeded to score 11 of the next 14 points to take an 11-8 lead. The lead eventually grew to 20-14 after a kill by Emilee Schlader (Lewiston, Idaho/Lewiston). SJC chipped away at the lead scoring four of the next five points to get within 21-18. The Miners answered that run with three straight points to grab a 24-18 advantage with multiple set points. The Pumas scored three straight points before Caroline Dykes (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence) hammered home a kill to give S&T the 25-21 win.

The Miners got off to a quick start in the third set scoring six of the first nine points but Saint Joseph's countered with an 8-2 run to grab an 11-8 lead. The Pumas continued to lead before S&T scored seven of the next eight points to retake the lead at 18-15. Saint Joseph's regained the lead with a 6-2 run of its own but S&T was able to finish the match strong scoring five of the final six points to win 25-22 and complete the sweep.

The Miners finished the match with a hitting percentage of .223 with 40 kills against 15 attack errors. Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) was the lone player to reach double figures in kills with 14. Ellen Schulz (Wildwood, Mo./Eureka) and Schlader finished with eight and seven kills respectively. Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) handed out 31 assists and Cydney Denning (San Antonio, Texas/Brandeis ) finished with 11 digs.

S&T's defense made things difficult for the Puma offense holding them to a .103 hitting percentage. They hit just .066 percent in the first two sets before hitting .222 in the final stanza. SJC finished the match recording 31 kills but committed 19 errors in 117 chances. Julia Kruzan led the Pumas with eight kills while Bridget Kraswoski added seven kills. Alyssa Spears had 24 assists and Jena Davis had a match-high 14 digs.

The Miners continue their five match road trip next Friday in St. Louis against Maryville beginning at 7 p.m.