KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – Missouri S&T's women's volleyball team closed out its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule Saturday night with another victory, taking down Truman State in straight sets by scores of 25-15, 25-23 and 25-22.
The win was the sixth in a row for the Miners and will give S&T the fifth seed at next week's GLVC Tournament in Williamsville, Ill. S&T (17-9, 8-5 GLVC) will take on fourth-seeded Rockhurst in the opening round on Friday at 2:30 p.m.
On Saturday, the Miners took charge midway through the first set as they outscored the Bulldogs (12-16, 2-11 GLVC) 10-4 in a stretch to build an eight-point lead.
Alina Carrillo (Oviedo, FL/Hagerty) had two blocks and three kills during that run as the Miners held Truman to a minus .026 attack percentage in the set.
The teams played on more even terms over the final two sets, as the score was tied nine times in each of the sets and the lead exchanged hands nine times during the two combined. Set two saw the Bulldogs get the early lead and they held it for the better part of he set before a late surge by the Miners put the end result in their favor.
S&T took the lead for good at 20-19 following a service ace by
Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central), then the Miners got another block from Carrillo to go up 23-20. S&T had three set points and converted on the third of them to close out the set, which came on a kill by
Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla).
The third set was similar to the second as Truman held the lead for a good portion of it, only to see another late run that allowed the Miners to win it. Trailing 16-12, S&T scored four straight points to tie the set, then after the Bulldogs broke to run to retake the lead, the Miners got a kill from
Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South) and a service ace from
Annie Arand (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia) to take an 18-17 lead.
The set was tied at 22 before the Miners scored the final three points, ending the contest on their eighth service ace of the match courtesy of Carrillo.
Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) led the Miners with 11 kills in the match while Carrillo added 10, as the Miners had a .188 attack percentage for the night. S&T also had six blocks, three of them from Ply, while also getting 14 assists from Arand and a game-high 13 digs from
Mia Alessio (Channahon, IL/Minooka).
Truman State finished the night with a .155 attack percentage and nine blocks.
