ROLLA, Mo. – After finishing a weekend that included matches with three nationally-ranked teams with a split, Missouri S&T will face its second Great Lakes Valley Conference opponent of the season Friday when it heads to Springfield, Ill., to take on the University of Illinois Springfield.  Friday's match gets underway at 6 p.m.

Friday's contest is a non-conference match, as the Miners begin their conference schedule on Sept. 15 against Quincy in their home opener.  S&T has already played GLVC foe Missouri-St. Louis in a non-conference contest and beat the Tritons in three sets in the season opener on August 25.

The Miners extended their run of consecutive wins in straight sets to a school record five on Thursday when it swept 17^th-ranked Gannon, then defeated 14^th-ranked Colorado School of Mines in four sets to reach the 6-0 mark to start a season for the first time in program history.  However, the weekend ended with losses to 22^nd-ranked Hillsdale on the Chargers' home floor and to Ferris State, putting the Miners at 6-2 heading into Friday's match.

For the second week in succession and on the strength of their showing at Hillsdale, the Miners received votes in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association rankings as S&T received 48 points this week.  The Miners are one of four teams in the GLVC receiving national recognition in this week's poll, with Lewis ranked 17^th and Rockhurst and Quincy joining S&T in the others receiving votes column.

Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb), who was named to the all-tournament team over the weekend, leads the Miners with 79 kills or 3.04 per set, marks that rank ninth in the GLVC.  Meanwhile, Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) has 74 kills and 2.85 per set; her attack percentage of .362 currently ranks sixth in the GLVC.

The Miners as a team rank third in hitting percentage in the conference with a mark of .239 and have held their opponents to a .151 attacking mark.  S&T also sits second in the conference in blocks with 2.5 per set, with Madison Offerman (Herscher, IL/Herscher) tied for second in the conference with 1.19 per set and Ply ranking fifth with 1.12 blocks per set.

ABOUT THE OPPONENT:  Illinois Springfield is currently 3-5 on the season, but dropped four matches over the past weekend at Wisconsin-Parkside after going 3-1 in the first weekend of action.  The Prairie Stars lost 12 of the 13 sets it played over the weekend, winning only the second set in a loss to Minnesota Crookston.

Angela Denney has a GLVC-high 119 kills with a team-high .226 hitting percentage for UIS, while Zanea Spencer has recorded 66 kills to date.  Denney has had 15 or more kills in five of the Prairie Stars' eight matches this season.  Setter Reagan Trueblood is fifth in the conference with 8.1 assists per set and Amanda McConnell ranks sixth in digs with 4.24 per set.