St. Charles, Mo. – Senior outside hitter
Carlie Combs (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) tallied a match-high 17 kills in leading the Missouri S&T women's volleyball team to a 3-0 win (25-20, 25-16, 26-24) over Southern Nazarene this Friday (Aug. 24) in the Miners' second and final first-day match of the 2018 Lindenwood Invitational at LU's Hyland Arena.
With the victory, S&T is now 2-0 overall on the season and off to its best start since 2015 when the Miners won their first four outings. The two victories also represent the third time in which S&T has won back-to-back matches (2010 and 2015) to start a season, equaling the 2010 and 2015 .
Joining Combs in double-digit kills was junior outside hitter
Emilee Schlader (Lewiston, Idaho/Lewiston), who hammered 10 as S&T concluded the four-set match with a .325 hitting percentage. Senior right-side hitter
Ellen Schulz (Wildwood, Mo./Eureka) contributed eight kills and hit for .400 efficiency (8-0-20). Freshman right-side hitter
Avery Reed (Ste. Genevieve, Mo./Ste. Genevieve) turned in a commendable effort with six kills on 10 attempts for a .600 success rate while junior middle hitter Carolina Dykes matched Schulz's attack proficiency with four kills on 10 attempts.
On the defensive side, junior liberos Corrine Stulce and
Eva Mich (St. Peters, Mo./Francis Howell Central) paved the way for S&T with a match-high tying 14 and 12 digs, respectively. The Miners, who racked up 12 block assists in the contest, received four from
Caroline Dykes (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence) while five others recorded at least one block assist. Redshirt sophomore
Sarah McGinnis (Middleton, Wis./Edgewood) set up 22 assists and freshman setter
Sarah Cavanaugh (Highlands Ranch, Colo./Thunder Ridge) had 18 for the Miners.
Southern Nazarene, which falls to 0-2 on the year, received a 16-kills effort from Bailee Turang as SNU was .203 in hitting efficiency. Meagan Ellis was the only Red Storm player to post double figures in digs with a match-best tying 14 total.
The Miners will seek to continue their winning ways at the season-opening Lindenwood Invitational this Saturday (Aug. 25) with two more matches inside Hyland Arena. S&T takes on Chadron State in a 11:30 a.m. (CT) encounter before closing out the weekend tournament versus host Lindenwood at 7 p.m. (CT).
