ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's volleyball team came from behind Saturday afternoon to pick up a critical win in Great Lakes Valley Conference play, as it downed McKendree in a five-set match at Gibson Arena by winning the final two sets of the contest.
McKendree (9-14, 4-6 GLVC) sandwiched wins of 25-18 and 25-22 around the Miners' 25-29 win in set two, but S&T stormed back in the fourth set to win 25-15 and after getting off to a fast start in the decisive fifth set, held off the Bearcats to win 15-11 to improve to 14-7 overall and 6-3 in the GLVC.
S&T held one early lead in the opening set, but the Bearcats hit .429 in that stanza to take control early for the win. McKendree would not reach that hitting mark for the rest of the match, however, as the Miners came back to even up the match in the second set.
After the teams went back-and-forth in the opening stages of the second, the Miners used a 5-0 burst to take the lead for good. S&T forced two straight sideouts to get the lead, then continued the run on a combined block by
Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) and
Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) and a service ace by
Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central). Mason later got the kill that closed out the win in set two.
S&T carried that momentum into the start of the third set, jumping out to a 7-2 advantage at the start and holding as much as a seven-point lead at 14-7 following a kill by
Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South). The Miners still led by seven at 16-9 when the Bearcats began a rally, closing the gap to 18-15 before a Burton kill halted that run, but McKendree scored five straight to take its first lead of the set.
With the set tied at 22, McKendree scored the final three points to win it and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
However, the Miners bounced back in a big way as they again took a big lead to open the set and then maintained a lead of at least five points after going up 13-4 to begin it. S&T scored five of the last six points of the fourth to close it out, then opened the fifth set with the first five points before the Bearcats closed the gap.
The Miners never lost their lead in the fifth set, but McKendree cut that early lead to 6-5 before a block by
Madison Offerman (Herscher, IL/Herscher) and Ply halted that surge. The Bearcats stayed close and had the lead down to two at 13-11 before a pair of mistakes led to the final two points of the contest.
S&T hit .186 in the match and had three players in double figures in kills, with Burton leading the way with 18 while Mason and Widiker had 11 apiece. Ply was in on seven of S&T's 12 blocks and Offerman was in on five, while
Hannah Merjil (Bakersfield, CA/Garces Memorial) recorded 31 assists and
Lexi Netherlain (Sullivan, IN/Sullivan) had 14 digs.
Missouri S&T will play its next two games away from home, beginning with Friday's 6 p.m. (Eastern time) contest at Indianapolis.
