ROLLA, Mo. – A fast start to the match propelled Missouri S&T's volleyball team to a straight-set win Friday night over William Jewell in a Great Lakes Valley Conference match at Gibson Arena, as the Miners beat the Cardinals 25-10, 25-18 and 25-16 for their seventh three-set win this season.
The Miners (8-4, 2-1 GLVC) scored the first nine points of the match, getting two service aces from
Lexi Netherlain (Sullivan, IN/Sullivan) and two kills apiece from
Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) and
Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central) during the course of that early run. After the Cardinals (7-9, 0-3 GLVC) got a point to stop that run, S&T ran off 11 of the next 14 points to take a 20-4 lead and cruised to the first set victory.
Missouri S&T hit a blistering .640 in the first set and had no attack errors in its 25 attempts, while holding the Cardinals to an .067 mark.
William Jewell was able to get its first lead of the match in set two at 5-4 and held the lead for a good portion of the set, but the Miners made another big run to take control of matters after the Cardinals had built as much as a four-point lead. Trailing 16-14, S&T outscored the Cardinals 9-1 to take a 23-17 lead, getting three kills from
Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South) in the process. Burton also got a kill to bring about set point and the Miner won the second after an attack error by the Cardinals.
S&T never trailed in the third set, although the Cardinals hung close for a large part of it. The Miners took the lead for good at 7-6 after a service error by Jewell that was the first of five straight points for the Miners. The Cardinals had the gap down to two at 16-14 before a seven-point run by S&T allowed the Miners to pull away.
Mason, who led the Miners with 12 kills, got the one that ended the game in the third set as she hit .360 in the match. Widiker finished the match with 10 kills and Burton ended up with nine as the Miners recorded a .303 hitting percentage in the contest.
Netherlain and
Meiko Pearson (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest) has 12 digs apiece, while
Hannah Merjil (Bakersfield, CA/Garces Memorial) finished with 24 assists. William Jewell hit just .026 as a team in the match.
The Miners will be back in action Saturday as they host Rockhurst in a 3 p.m. contest at Gibson Arena. Tickets for the volleyball game will also be good for a free admission to the S&T football Saturday that begins at 6 p.m.
