ROLLA, Mo. – Looking to rebound after setback on the road Tuesday night, the Missouri S&T volleyball team was back at home to open another weekend of GLVC play, starting with Illinois Springfield Friday night at Gibson Arena. The short-handed Miners (12-4, 6-2) won the first two sets before the Prairie Stars (6-10, 4-4) battled back to win the next two and force a decisive fifth set. S&T answered the bell and used a big run in the final set of the night to capture a hard-fought 3-2 victory (25-23, 25-20, 23-25, 21-25, 15-10).
 
UIS scored first and led through much of the early going in the opening set of the evening, pushing their advantage to as much as six at 14-8. It was then S&T flipped a switch and took control of the set, as a Hannah Merjil (Bakersfield, CA/Garces Memorial) kill ignited a 10-2 run that saw the Miners tie the set and take the lead at 18-16 behind two kills from Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb). The Prairie Stars tried to battle back but S&T managed to keep the visitors at bay as an Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central) kill closed things out with a 25-23 win.
 
Illinois Springfield scored first again in set two but the Miners didn't waste time taking the lead behind a 6-1 run behind kills from Widiker and Mason to lead at 10-5. S&T kept the pressure up and ran their lead up to seven at 18-11 behind a kill and an ace from Payton Gannaway (Lawrence, KS/Lawrence Free State). The Prairie Stars were unable to mount a rally as the Miners captured the set 25-20 on a block by Madison Offerman (Herscher, IL/Herscher) and Mason.
 
Set three was fairly even through the first 11 points as the two sides exchanged runs with S&T coming out ahead 7-4 following a service ace from Merjil and a pair of UIS errors. The visitors then went on a 9-1 run to take the lead at 13-8 and swing momentum in their favor. The Prairie Stars led into the later stages of the set until the Miners went on a 6-1 run with Gannaway holding serve to close within one at 24-23, but couldn't quite complete the comeback, falling 25-23.
 
Set four began with the Prairie Stars scoring first and leading for most of the early going until at 12-7, Missouri S&T rattled off seven straight points behind Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla), who started and ended the run with kills while also being in on a trio of blocks, to take a 14-12 lead. The next four points went back-ant-forth until UIS scored seven straight points to regain the lead and using that to take the set 25-21 to force a fifth set.
 
With the match on the line as set five began, S&T took the first lead on a kill from Widiker before UIS briefly took the lead at 3-2. Things swung back in favor of the Miners for good as the Miners' front line came up with two more big blocks with Offerman leading the way to a 6-4 lead. Seven of the next three points went the way of the Green & Gold behind Mason, Ply, Widiker and Gannaway to take command of the set at 13-6. Despite scoring a few points late, the Prairie Stars couldn't rally as a Gannaway kill closed out the night with a 15-10 win.
 
The Lawrence Free State product finished the match with 20 kills, reaching that mark for the fifth time this season. Widiker posted a season-best 15 kills and posted her first double-double since the 2019 season with 17 digs. Ply finished with nine kills and seven blocks, while Mason logged eight kills, four blocks and four digs. Offerman posted a season-high six kills and eight blocks in her second start of the season while Merjil posted a double-double with 54 assists and 26 digs, both marks being season-bests. Meiko Person was the third Miner in double-digit digs, finished the night with 18.
 
Up next for S&T, the 13th-ranked team in the latest AVCA Top 25 Poll comes to town Saturday in a rematch of last spring's GLVC Tournament semifinals against Lewis. First serve is scheduled for 3 P.M.