HAMMOND, Ind. – Following a tough loss earlier in the day and dropping the opening set of its second match of the day at the Midwest Regional Crossover, Missouri S&T's volleyball team stormed back to win the final three sets against Findlay to earn a split on the day.
The Miners (11-7) dropped the opening set 25-23 to the Oilers (13-10), the leaders in the Great Midwest Athletic Conference, but bounced the Ohio-based school in the final three sets by scores of 25-19, 25-12 and 25-10 as they posted a season-best .347 hitting percentage in the match.
S&T had grabbed a narrow lead in the late stages of the first set and held a 23-22 advantage, but the Oilers took the last three points to take the set. But in the second, S&T scored the first three points and after the Oilers had forged a trio of ties, the Miners went up for good on a Findlay service error that started another three-point run.
After Findlay had cut the lead back to one, the Miners went on a 5-0 burst with
Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) and
Madison Offerman (Herscher, IL/Herscher) each recording a kill and combining on a block along the way. S&T would lead by as many as seven points in the set.
The Miners would hold Findlay to a negative hitting percentage over the course of the final two sets, while recording a hitting mark of .357 over that span. A kill by
Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central) started a 7-0 run that broke an early tie that put the Miners in control of the third set; S&T would extend that spurt to 13-3 by the time it was finished to build a 10-point lead in the third.
In the fourth set, the Miners scored the first five points with
Meiko Pearson (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest) recording service aces on each end of that run. S&T would take the lead to 10-3 following a kill by
Hannah Merjil (Bakersfield, CA/Garces Memorial) and would lead by as many as 15 points at 23-8 during the final segment.
The Miners got a combined 44 kills led by Mason's 16, while
Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South) finished with 15 and Widiker with 13. Offerman finished with eight assisted blocks in the match, while
Annie Arand (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia) recorded 23 assists and Merjil ended up with 20.
Lexi Netherlain (Sullivan, IN/Sullivan) had a game-high 30 digs.
Missouri S&T finished the match with only 13 attack errors and just eight in the final three sets.
The Miners will play their final game in the Midwest Regional Crossover on Saturday against Wayne State (Mich.) at 2 p.m. Wayne State also went 1-1 on Friday, losing to Quincy in four sets before posting a three-set win over Trevecca Nazarene.
