SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – In a bruising match that came down to a fifth set, Missouri S&T's volleyball team outlasted Drury by taking the final two sets in extended time to win the Great Lakes Valley Conference match 3-2 at the O'Reilly Family Events Center.
The win allowed the Miners to split the weekend venture to southwest Missouri as S&T improved to 10-5 overall and 4-2 in the GLVC, while Drury fell to 7-11 and 2-3 in conference play.
After the Panthers took the opening set 25-16, S&T roared back in set two by hitting .308 to win 25-19 to even the match. The Miners never trailed in the second set, using an early 5-0 run to take an 8-2 lead and holding an advantage of at least three points for the balance of the set. Drury closed to within three at 17-14, but S&T ran off three straight points to regain a six-point lead and closed out the set on a kill by
Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla).
While the first two sets saw the winning team lead from start to finish, the last three were back-and-forth affairs.
Set three saw a total of 16 ties and eight lead changes as neither team held a lead of more than two points after the early stages of the set. The Miners had set point at 24-22 after a kill by
Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South), but Drury ran off four straight points to overtake S&T and win the set 26-24.
The fourth set had 15 ties and nine lead changes and again, the lead was no more than two points for either side for the majority of the set. Drury took a 23-21 lead in the set, but kills by
Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central) and Burton tied the match, then the Miners reached set point again after a Panther ball handling error.
The match was tied again at 24, then again at 25, 26 and 27 after a
Madison Offerman (Herscher, IL/Herscher) block prevented Drury from winning the game at that point. Offerman was involved in another block after that one with
Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) to put the Miners into the lead, then S&T closed out the 29-27 set win after a sideout by the Panthers.
S&T got out to an 8-5 lead at the changeover in the fifth set and then built the lead to 13-9 on a kill by Ply. Burton followed a kill by Drury's Salma Lewis to put the Miners on the bring of a victory, but the Panthers held off four match points to extend the set.
However, S&T forced two sideouts by the Panthers on the next two points to captured the set by a 17-15 count and the match.
Mason led three Miners in double figures in the kill department with 17, while Burton finished with 14 and Widiker recorded 10 to go along with 12 digs. The Miners posted a .152 hitting percentage in the match – they also hit .353 in the fifth set – and finished with 18 blocks, as Offerman had two solo blocks as well as eight assisted ones. Ply had a hand in seven blocks and Mason was in on six in the contest.
The Miners will play just once next week as they will take on Missouri-St. Louis next Saturday in a 3 p.m. contest in St. Louis.
