HAMMOND, Ind. – Missouri S&T missed a chance on Friday to win a match when it had three match points in the fifth set against Davenport. But placed in the opposite scenario Saturday afternoon, the Miners held off six match points and then came away victorious in its match with Wayne State (Mich.) at the Midwest Regional Crossover as they won three sets to two.
S&T won the opening set 25-22, then after falling in the next two sets 25-16 and 25-21, captured the final two by scores of 25-21 and 18-16 to take two of its three weekend matches at the event. The Miners improved to 12-7 on the season while dropping the Warriors to 13-9.
The Miners trailed 14-10 in the fifth set, but got a kill from
Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) and back-to-back service aces from
Brooke McCartney (Lincoln, NE/Lincoln East) to cut the Warrior lead to one.
Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) recorded a block to tie the game at 14, then S&T took the lead on another service ace by McCartney.
Wayne State staved off a match point and regained the lead at 16-15 before a service error tied the contest up again. S&T then got a combined block from Ply and
Hannah Merjil (Bakersfield, CA/Garces Memorial) to go back in front, then closed out the victory by forcing a sideout.
S&T trailed only twice in the opening set at 12-11 and 13-12, but took the lead for good at 14-13 following a kill by
Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South). The Warriors stayed within striking range over the balance of the first set and eventually tied things up at 22 before three straight kills by Burton allowed the Miners to claim the opening stanza.
The Warriors shut down the Miners' offensive attack in the next two sets, holding S&T to a .000 hitting percentage in the second and a .093 mark in the third. Wayne State took the early lead in set four, but S&T used a 6-0 run to take the lead for good.
Abigail Widiker's (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central) kill started the run, then the Miners forced three straight sideouts in taking the lead and finished the run with kills from Burton and Ply.
S&T then took control of the match by outscoring the Warriors 6-2 midway through the set to take an eight-point advantage and finished the set with another kill from Burton after Wayne State had cut the Miner lead to three.
Widiker led the Miners with 17 kills in the match, while Burton finished with 15 and Mason with a dozen as S&T hit .175 in the match. Merjil had 26 assists and
Annie Arand (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia) added 24, while
Lexi Netherlain (Sullivan, IN/Sullivan) finished with 25 digs and Ply was in on eight blocks, including two solo blocks.
The Miners return to Great Lakes Valley Conference play Friday when they host Maryville at 6 p.m. at Gibson Arena.
