KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Looking to win their second straight match, the Missouri S&T volleyball team was back in action Saturday at Mason-Halpin Fieldhouse opposite division leader Rockhurst. The Miners (17-9, 10-5) made quick work of the Hawks (18-10, 11-5), dispatching the home team in straight sets (25-23, 25-20, 25-16) to post a perfect weekend in Kansas City.
Things didn't start well for S&T as they found themselves down 6-0 in set one to Rockhurst but remained composed and started to chip away at the deficit, tying things at 13 on a
Hannah Merjil (Bakersfield, CA/Garces Memorial) service ace before finally taking the lead for the first time at 15-14 on a
Payton Gannaway (Lawrence, KS/Lawrence Free State) kill. The set was tightly contested as RU didn't let S&T pull away. A 3-0 burst led by
Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) and
Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South) made it a four-point lead at 23-19 before the Hawks again managed to close to within one following and Miner set point, but they fell short of forcing extra points on a service error to end the set 25-23 and give S&T the early lead in the match.
It was the Miners' turn to start fast in set two, charging out to a 5-1 behind two Burton kills and taking advantage of several Rockhurst errors. The Miners continued to lead and extended their advantage to 12-6 on a kill and three consecutive aces from Gannaway. The Hawks managed to remain close but could never gain enough momentum to take the lead as two more aces from Gannaway in the late going made it 23-17. The Hawks scored three points late, but an
Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central) kill wrapped things up with a 25-20 win to make it 2-0 S&T in the match.
With their backs against the wall and looking to force a fourth set, Rockhurst scored first in the third frame of the day and led for much of the early going. Trailing 12-8, S&T all but put things away by scoring nine-straight points to power in front 17-12, led in large part by Widiker and strong serving by
Lexi Netherlain (Sullivan, IN/Sullivan). With all the momentum in their favor, the Miners scored five of the next seven on kills from Gannaway, Widiker and
Kiernan O'Boyle (Kansas City, MO/St. Teresa's Academy) to lead 22-14 before going on to close out the match with a 25-16 win.
Gannaway finished with 12 kills and five service aces while Widiker hit .471 with 10 kills and finished one dig shy of a double-double with nine. Burton added nine kills of her own and Merjil recorded a double-double with 33 assists and 14 digs. O'Boyle finished with six blocks and four kills and as a team S&T logged 18 blocks in the match.
The Miners close out their five-match road trip with their final midweek match of the season Tuesday night at Southwest Baptist at 7 P.M.
