ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's volleyball team will play its final match prior to the Midwest Region Crossover Saturday afternoon when it heads to St. Louis for a matchup against the University of Missouri-St. Louis at 3 p.m.

The Miners and Tritons are meeting for the second time this season, as S&T best UMSL in three sets in a non-conference matchup to begin the campaign on August 25.  Since then, the teams have moved to the top end of the Great Lakes Valley Conference standings as the Tritons are tied with Quincy for the lead and S&T sits alone in third place, one game behind the Hawks and Tritons.

Missouri S&T (10-5, 4-2 GLVC) split the first two games of its stretch on the road last weekend, falling to Southwest Baptist on Friday before rallying to win the last two sets and the match a day later at Drury.  S&T hit .353 in the decisive fifth set – the first Miner match this season to go the distance – and got 17 kills from Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) and 14 from Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South) in the contest.

Mason leads the Miners with 169 kills on the season, which ranks 10^th in the conference, while Burton has recorded 151 kills and Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) 135.  Ply ranks second in the GLVC in hitting percentage with a .373 mark entering this weekend's action.

Ply is also among the league leaders in blocks with 53, or 1.02 per set, to rank sixth in the GLVC while teammate Madison Offerman (Herscher, IL/Herscher) is second in that category with 1.20 per set.  Offerman had a hand in 10 blocks in Saturday's game at Drury and had eight assisted blocks that was three off the S&T single-game record.

Hannah Merjil (Bakersfield, CA/Garces Memorial) is also among the GLVC leaders as she ranks ninth in assists with 6.15 per set.

On the team side, the Miners continue to rank third in hitting percentage in the GLVC at .222 and have held opposing teams to a .150 mark, the second-best in the league.  S&T also ranks second in the conference with 2.49 blocks per set.

ABOUT THE OPPONENT:  Missouri-St. Louis moved into a tie for the GLVC lead with Quincy over the weekend after the Hawks suffered their first loss of the season, while the Tritons were extending their winning streak to four games with wins at Rockhurst and Southwest Baptist.  UMSL comes into the weekend at 12-4 overall and 5-1 in the GLVC.

The Tritons lead the GLVC in hitting percentage at .268 and have a league-best 14.21 kills per set, paced by the 4.09 recorded by Charlotte Richards.  Lexie Rang also ranks sixth in the GLVC with 3.41 kills per set while Hannah Copeland has the fifth-best hitting percentage in the conference at .333.

Richards, Caitlin Bishop and Kylie Adams – who along with Hailey Flowers allowed UMSL to sweep the GLVC's player of the week awards this week – have combined for 79 service aces that has the trio ranked among the top four in the league rankings.