Rolla, Mo. – Missouri S&T's volleyball team had its chances on Friday night but ultimately came up short in a straight set loss to Bellarmine (23-25, 28-30, 13-25) at the Bullman Multi-Purpose Building.
Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) led the Miners with 15 kills in the contest.
S&T held a 20-14 lead late in the opening set but the Knights (19-5, 9-3 GLVC) stormed back with a 7-1 run to even the frame at 21 after back-to-back attack errors by the Miners.
Payton Gannaway (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence Free State) gave S&T the lead back with a kill but Bellarmine scored four of the final five points to win the opener 25-23. The Miners hit .229 in the opening set recording 14 kills but a couple of ball handling errors and service errors turned out to be the difference.
S&T trailed by as many as four in the middle stanza before coming back to tie it at 22 on a kill from Combs. The Knights regained the lead on a kill by Izzie Salameh and a service ace from Jordyn Kuchenbrod to make it 24-22. The Miners answered back with kills from
Calla Meyer (Clackamas, Ore./Clackamas) and Kyley Thompsen and a Bellarmine error to take its first lead of the set at 25-24. It was one of four chances S&T had to even the match but were unable to finish it off as the Knights eventually won 30-28.
The Miners trailed 15-8 in the third stanza but used a 5-1 run to cut the deficit to 16-13. Combs had a couple of kills in the run and Meyer added one as well. That would be the closest S&T got though as Bellarmine scored the final nine points of the match to win 25-13.
The Miners finished the match with a .186 hitting percentage. Combs was the lone player to reach double figures while Gannaway added nine kills and
Emilee Schlader (Lewiston, Idaho/Lewiston) finished with eight kills.
Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) handed out 20 assists and Combs also led the way with 13 digs to finish with a double-double.
Margaret Hohrihan ended the match with a match-high 17 kills while Hayden Dailey finished with seven kills. Allie Muha dished out 34 assists and Kuchenbrod had a match-high 21 digs.
S&T returns to the court on Saturday when they take on sixth ranked Lewis beginning at 3 p.m.
