St. Louis, Mo. – Facing match point the Missouri S&T Miner volleyball squad scored three straight points to defeat Maryville 3-2 on Friday evening at Moloney Arena in St. Louis, Mo. The Miners trailed by as four points in the final set before rallying for their second straight win.

S&T (5-8, 2-3 GLVC) led wire-to-wire to take the opener 25-20 building an early five point and didn't allow the Saints to get closer than a point. Maryville cut the lead to 18-17 after a kill from Cassidy Arndt but the Miners responded scoring eight of the next 11 points to win the frame on a kill by Caroline Dykes (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence).

S&T fell behind by five early in the second stanza before eventually knotting it up at 11 after a Saint attack error. Maryville charged back in front thanks to an 8-5 run and appeared to be in control of the set leading 22-19 when the Miners rattled off four straight to take a 23-22 advantage. Carson Talley (St. Louis, Mo./Affton) accounted for three of the four kills in the surge. However, S&T was unable to close out the frame as the Saints scored the final three points to win 25-23 and even the match at 1-1.

The Miners fell behind again early in set three before going on a 13-4 run giving them a 24-17 lead and set point. The Saints fought back scoring four straight and forced a timeout by S&T. After the timeout, the Miner defense forced Allison Lakin to hit into an error to give S&T the 25-21 win and a 2-1 lead in the match.

The fourth set was back-and-forth until about the midway point when Maryville used an 11-4 run to take control at 20-13. The Miners fought back scoring six straight points to close to within 20-19 on a kill by Dykes, but the Saints responded stretching the lead out to 24-21. S&T wouldn't go away as Kyley Thompson (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) hammered home a kill and a service from Dykes made it 24-23 forcing a Maryville timeout. That would be the closest the Miners got as Kara Wright knocked home a kill on the next point to give the Saints the 25-23 win and force the decisive fifth set.

Maryville started fast in the finale scoring five of the first six points forcing S&T to take a quick timeout. The two sides traded points before the Miners went on a 7-2 run to pull ahead 8-7 on an error by Arndt. The two sides then began exchanging points until S&T held a 13-12 lead after a double block by Thompson and Dykes. The Saints responded with back-to-back points and were on the verge of winning the match until S&T rallied. Talley started the rally with a kill and a service by Caitlin Brocker (Crystal Lake, Ill./Marian Central ) gave the Miners a 15-14 lead forcing Maryville to call timeout. Emilee Schlader (Lewiston, Idaho/Lewiston) ended the match with a kill after the timeout giving S&T a 16-14 win.

The Miners finished the match with a hitting percentage of .199 recording 62 kills against 28 errors in 181 chances. Talley led four S&T players in double figures with 17 kills. Dykes added 14 while Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) and Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) had 12 and 10 kills respectively. Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) handed out 57 assists and Corinne Stulce (St. Charles, Mo./Duchesne) had 19 digs.

The Saints also finished the match with 64 kills against 28 errors but in 187 chances and had an attack percentage of .193. Lakin led three Maryville players in double figures with 17 kills while Wright and Ashley Selman had 13 kills each. Kayla Buxton dished out 30 assists and Makayla Campbell had 19 digs.

The Miners continue their five game roadtrip on Saturday taking on the Tritons of Missouri-St. Louis in a 3 pm contest at the Mark Twain Building.