Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Miners trailed 2-1 in its match against McKendree and were down 23-19 in the fourth set but came back to score six straight points to win 25-23 and force a fifth set. Unfortunately for the Miners (4-8, 0-3 GLVC) they had the tables flipped on them in set five leading 14-10 but gave up a 7-1 run to end the match as the Bearcats (7-3, 2-0 GLVC) prevailed 3-2 (18-25, 25-23, 19-25, 25-23, 15-17) on Friday evening in Rolla.

S&T struggled to contain McKendree's offense in the opening set as the Bearcats finished with 17 kills and hit 36.1 percent in the set. The Bearcats led for a majority of the set and used a late run to pull away to take the opener. Amanda Geiger led McKendree with seven kills in the opening set.

The Miners came out of the gates firing on all cylinders in the set two racing out to an early 10-3 advantage. The Bearcats clawed their way back into the set eventually tying it at 17. S&T responded with three straight points but McKendree battled back thanks to a 5-2 run to tie it at 22 on a kill from Arela Williams. The Miners regained the lead at 24-23 on a kill from Emilee Schlader (Lewiston, Idaho/Lewiston) and then after a Bearcat timeout Williams hit one out of bounds to give S&T the win 25-23 and evened the match at a set each.

McKendree dominated the third set racing out to an early six point lead and wouldn't allow the Miners to get any closer than four points the remainder of the set. The Bearcats hit only 17.1 percent in the stanza but their defense forced S&T into nine errors and held them to a negative .033 hitting percentage.

The Miners led for a majority of the fourth set and were ahead 17-15 but McKendree went on a 6-0 run to take a 21-17 lead after a kill from Elle Russell. The lead eventually grew to 23-19 but S&T battled back scoring the final six points to win the set 25-23 on a double block of Williams by Carson Talley (St. Louis, Mo./Affton) and Ellen Schulz (Wildwood, Mo./Eureka).

The Miners carried that momentum into set five scoring the first six points of the set and were ahead 8-3 at the changeover. The Bearcats again clawed back into it by scoring four of the next five points to trim the S&T lead to 9-7 on a kill from Geiger. The Miners responded with a 5-3 run of their own and had a 14-10 lead after Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) 15^th kill of the match gave them four match points to work with.

Geiger kept McKendree alive with a kill and then Ellen Schulz (Wildwood, Mo./Eureka) tried to end the match but her attempt sailed out of bounds to make it 14-12. Geiger and Bailey Craig stuffed Combs at the net and then Geiger recorded back-to-back kills to put the Bearcats ahead 15-14. Schulz knocked down a kill to square the set at 15 but McKendree got another kill from Geiger and a double block from Russell and Megan Marks to win 17-15.

S&T finished the contest with 55 kills against 32 errors in 168 attacks and had an attack percentage of .137. Combs was joined in double figures by Schlader with 10 kills while Talley added nine. Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) dished out 29 assists and Corinne Stulce (St. Charles, Mo./Duchesne) had 18 digs.

Geiger finished with a match-high 26 kills and was joined in double figures by Williams with 18 while Marks added 12. Morgan Melchert handed out 55 assists and also had a match-high 20 digs.

The Miners are back in action on Saturday afternoon hosting Maryville at 3 p.m.