ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's women's volleyball team heads into this week's Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament on a six-game winning streak, which it will look to extend in an effort to hopefully earn its first conference championship and a spot in the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional by the time the weekend ends.

The Miners, who are in the GLVC Tournament for the fifth consecutive season and 10^th time overall, enter as the fifth seed and will open play against fourth-seeded Rockhurst Friday at 2:30 p.m. at the Williamsville Field House in Williamsville, Ill.  S&T's current winning streak has it at 17-9 overall and ranked ninth in the latest NCAA Division II Midwest Regional rankings; the top eight teams – with automatic bids factored in – will qualify for the regional that will begin the weekend after Thanksgiving.

Missouri S&T extended its winning streak with road wins over Upper Iowa and Truman State to close out the regular season, with Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) earning the Molten/GLVC Offensive Player of the Week award after recording a .500 attack percentage with 20 kills and nine blocks in the two matches.  She is currently sixth in the GLVC in attack percentage with a mark of .346 coming into the weekend.

Ply is also one of four Miners with over 200 kills on the season, a group led by Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) with 329.  Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South) has recorded 311 kills, while Ply has 247 and Alina Carrillo (Oviedo, FL/Hagerty) has 205.  In addition, Ply has a team-leading 95 blocks along the net, as her average of 0.93 per set played has her ranked eighth in the GLVC in that category.

Carrillo also leads S&T with 41 service aces which ranks seventh in the conference, while Madison Offerman (Herscher, IL/Herscher) is seventh in blocks per set with 0.97 and Mia Alessio (Channahon, IL/Minooka) is 10^th in digs with 388 on the season.  Annie Arand (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia) has a team-leading 575 assists and Elise Mehaffy (Marion, IA/Marion) has 528 from the setter spot.

ABOUT ROCKHURST: The Hawks come into Friday's match ranked sixth in the Midwest Region and are 21-6 overall; they finished one game in front of S&T in the GLVC standings at 9-4 after losing a five-set decision at William Jewell to close the season.

Rockhurst has two players ranked among the top eight in attack percentage in the GLVC in Sydney Raszler, who is fifth at .357 and Ali Olson, who ranks eighth with a mark of .333.  Tera Reberry leads the Hawks with 296 kills on the season and Sarah Pyle has recorded 285, while Sarah Montague has dished out 669 assists.  Rockhurst also has the league leader in digs in Maureen Reilly, who has averaged 5.6 per set with a total of 589, while Olson is third in blocks per set with 1.14.

The Hawks, who lost in the tournament championship game to Lewis last November, bested the Miners in a five-set match in Rolla on Sept. 22.  The winner will face either top-seeded Missouri-St. Louis – who is ranked second nationally with a 28-0 record – or Upper Iowa in Saturday's semifinals at 2:30 p.m., with the championship game scheduled for noon on Sunday.