BOLIVAR, MO- S&T (11-5, 11-5 GLVC) cruised to a 3-0 win over the Bearcats of Southwest Baptist today with 25-19, 25-17, and 25-16 wins in the three sets.

The Miners controlled the pace of the game from the first serve, jumping out to a 5-0 lead to open set one. They would extend their lead out to 15-7 after kills from Avery Reed (Ste. Genevieve, Mo./Ste. Genevieve), Shelby Ply (Rolla, Mo./Rolla), and Jordan Burton (Olathe, Kansas/Olathe South Senior High).

SBU would rally late in the set to cut the Miners lead to just three, but S&T would score five of the last seven points of the set to take the 25-19 set one win.

It took the Miners a bit to pull ahead of the Bearcats in set two; after trading points with them to open the set, the Miners went on a 7-2 run that was capped off with consecutive service aces from Payton Gannaway (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence Free State) and a kill from Shelby Ply (Rolla, Mo./Rolla) to give S&T a 15-7 lead. That lead would be just enough for the Miners to take the second set after four repeated kills from Gannaway, Reid, and Ply for S&T gave them the 25-17 set two win and a 2-0 lead in the match.

It was all S&T in the third set. They looked at an 18-9 lead and never looked back. SBU errors along with kills from Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, Wis./Mount Horeb), Avery Reed (Ste. Genevieve, Mo./Ste. Genevieve), Jordan Burton (Olathe, Kansas/Olathe South Senior High), and Hannah Merjil (Bakersfield, CA/Garces Memorial) gave the Miners the 25-16 set win and the 3-0 match win.

Payton Gannaway (Lawrence, Kan./Lawrence Free State) picked up her sixth double-double of the season with 12 kills and 10 digs while Avery Reed (Ste. Genevieve, Mo./Ste. Genevieve) and Jordan Burton (Olathe, Kansas/Olathe South Senior High) both recorded 10 kills. Hannah Merjil (Bakersfield, CA/Garces Memorial) dished out a match-high 34 assists while Gannaway and Meiko Pearson (Overland Park, Kansas/Blue Valley Northwest) recorded five and three service aces, respectively.

On the defensive side, Kiernan O'Boyle (Kansas City, Mo./St. Teresa's Academy) recorded three solo blocks while Meiko Pearson (Overland Park, Kansas/Blue Valley Northwest) picked up 20 of the team's 68 digs.