ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Missouri S&T's volleyball team defeated Missouri-St. Louis to open the 2022 season back in August, but the Tritons avenged that setback Saturday afternoon as they defeated the Miners in straight sets in a Great Lakes Valley Conference matchup at the Mark Twain Building.
The Tritons, who hold sole possession of first place in the GLVC standings, won the match by scores of 25-13, 25-22 and 25-19 to win for the 14
th time in 17 matches since the Miners' opening night win. UMSL is 7-1 in the GLVC (14-4 overall), while the Miners fell to 10-6 overall and 4-3 in the GLVC.
UMSL used an 11-0 run in the first set to seize control of the opening stanza, turning a 5-2 deficit into a 13-5 lead before
Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) recorded a kill to halt the run. The Tritons hit .323 in the first set while holding S&T to an .029 mark.
The Miners grabbed the early advantage in set two, holding the lead or being tied until UMSL got its first lead at 13-12 on a service ace by Charlotte Richards. S&T tied the match three times after the Tritons took the lead, the last time at 17 on a block by
Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) and
Hannah Feltz (Wildwood, MO/Eureka), but UMSL regained the lead at 18-17 on a kill by Richards and maintained it for the balance of the set.
Set three saw the Miners fall behind early as the Tritons took a 7-2 lead to open the set, forcing S&T into catch-up mode right away. The Miners cut that early deficit to 9-7 after a kill by Burton, but UMSL outscored S&T 11-3 to take a 20-10 lead and finished the set by hitting .308, even as S&T hit .323 in the final set.
Burton led the Miners with 12 kills in the match, while
Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) finished with eight kills and
Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central) with seven. S&T also got 16 assists from
Hannah Merjil (Bakersfield, CA/Garces Memorial) and 12 from
Annie Arand (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia), while
Lexi Netherlain (Sullivan, IN/Sullivan) recorded a team-high 18 digs.
Missouri S&T's next action will take place in the Midwest Regional Crossover on Friday and Saturday in Hammond, Ind. The pairings for the event will be announced later this weekend.
