Rolla, Mo. – The Missouri S&T Miners picked up their second straight sweep defeating Pittsburg State 3-0 (25-18, 25-16, 25-21) on Friday evening in the Middle of Everywhere Classic. The Miners (3-4) used a balanced offensive attack to down the Gorillas (2-4) to set up a winner take all match against Ashland on Saturday morning for the right to play for the Classic Championship.

The opening set went back-and-forth in the early going before S&T began to take control with a long run midway through the stanza. The Miners led by as many as eight points in the frame before taking the seven-point win. Emilee Schlader (Lewiston, Idaho/Lewiston), Carson Talley (St. Louis, Mo./Affton), Ellen Schulz (Wildwood, Mo./Eureka) and Kyley Thompson (Geneva, Ill./Geneva) had two kills each in the stanza.

S&T fired out of the gates in the middle set scoring six of the first eight points. Pitt State closed the deficit to 7-5 on a bad set from Alexis White (Auburn, Wash./Riverside) but the Miners responded with a 9-4 to build a seven point advantage. The Gorillas tried to chip away at the lead getting as close as 17-13 but S&T slammed the door shut scoring eight of the final 11 points in the set to win 25-16. Schlader and Talley had four kills each in the set.

The third set featured 14 ties and seven lead changes with the two sides answering each other's runs. The Miners trailed 20-18 after a service by Carolina VanBuskirk and were forced to take a timeout. After the timeout, S&T rattled off seven of the final eight points and ended the match on a service ace from Sarah McGinnis (Middleton, Wis./Edgewood).

The Miners finished the contest recording 39 kills against only nine errors and had a hitting percentage of .286. Talley led S&T with nine kills while Claire Friedlund (Parkville, Mo./Park Hill South) added seven and Emilee Schlader (Lewiston, Idaho/Lewiston) had six. White and McGinnis combined for 35 of the team's 37 assists and Corinne Stulce (St. Charles, Mo./Duchesne) had a match high 20 digs.

Pittsburg State finished the match with 37 kills but committed 15 errors and finished the match hitting .198 percent. Lauren Regeier and Noelle Dooley led the Gorillas with nine kills each while VanBusKirk dished out 19 assists and Lauren Maisberger had 13 digs.

The Miners will play two more matches on Saturday taking on Ashland at 9:30 a.m. and then will play again at 5:30 p.m. against either Washburn or Upper Iowa.