ST. CHARLES, Mo. - The S&T men's volleyball team returned to the hardwood after a 24 hour delay with a straight set loss at the hands of Lindenwood Saturday night. The Miners dropped the first two sets 25-21 and 25-19 before ultimately dropping the third set 25-14.
In the early stages of the first set, the Miners (3-8) and Lions battled back and forth and were tied at seven when
Nate Meyer (Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey) broke the tie on a kill. That was followed by a
Caleb Rohlwing (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) service ace to give S&T a two-point lead at 9-7. After each team exchanged points, the Lions responded with a 5-0 run where AJ Lewis broke the tie on a service ace.
Trailing 15-11, S&T started a 4-0 run on a
Aaron Sallade (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd) kill, then three successive attack errors rewarded the Miners to tie the set at 15-all. However, the Lions answered with four straight points before
Owen Price (Bay Shore, New York/Bay Shore) ended the run with a kill. In the ladder portion of the set, S&T was able to cut the deficit down to four twice before ultimately dropping the set.
The second set saw the Miners get off to a 4-3 lead, but Lindenwood answered with three straight points after kills from Rayshawn Bonner, Ian Schuller and AJ Lewis before Sallade ended the run with a kill. S&T trailed 11-9 when Meyer added a kill to cut it to one, but that would end up being the closest S&T would get to the Lions in the set. Lindenwood erupted for a 5-1 run to go up 17-12, then S&T had three straight points moments later which included a kill from Meyer and a block from
Grogan Kraus (St. Charles, Mo./Francis Howell North) that cut the deficit to two. Lindenwood closed the set with four straight points.
After the teams split the first four points of the third set, Lindenwood scored four straight points before a service error by Rayshawn Bonner gave S&T a point. The Miners and Lions continued to exchange points through the next several points, with Meyer cutting the deficit to four at 13-9 after a kill. However, the Lions increased the lead to 18-9 after a 5-0 run before Sallade ended the run on a kill that started a 3-0 Miner run. The Lions closed out the set on a 7-2 run to win the match.
The Miners were led in kills by Meyer with nine as Sallade contributed seven as the duo tallied 16 of the 20 team kills in the match.
Brayden Kuruzovich (State College, Penn./State College Area School District) led S&T with 18 assists Rohlwing added the lone service ace. On the defensive side, Sallade led with five digs each as Rohlwing and Sallade led with four total blocks each.
The Lions (2-5) were led in kills by Lewis with 11 and Carter Stenmark with nine.
The Miners will travel to St. Louis next Friday evening to face Alderson Broaddus at 5 p.m. at Maryville University.
