ROLLA, Mo. – Following a sweep of its games in the Missouri S&T Volleyball Tournament that extended its winning streak to five games, Missouri S&T will host another multi-team event late this week as it will play three games as part of the S&T Volleyball Classic at Gibson Arena.

The Miners (5-2) open play Thursday evening with a 6 p.m. match against Oklahoma Baptist, then play their other two games on Friday when they face Great Lakes Valley Conference newcomer Upper Iowa at 2 p.m. and close their week with a 6 p.m. matchup with Northwestern Oklahoma State.

S&T swept its four matches with wins over Emporia State, Lake Superior State, Union and Kentucky Wesleyan, and a win on Thursday would allow the Miners to match their longest winning streak from last season at six games.  The Miners have held all five opponents in their current winning streak to a hitting percentage below .200 and opposing teams have an attack percentage of only .185 on the season.

Meanwhile, S&T is coming off a match where it had its best hitting mark of the season of .420 in the win over Kentucky Wesleyan, committing only two attack errors over the final two sets of the three-set match.  Leading the way in that category is Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla), who has a .355 mark on the season with 66 kills, while Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) leads S&T with 88 kills and Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South) right behind her with 77.

Ply also leads the Miners with 22 blocks, while Mason has 21 and Hannah Feltz (Wildwood, MO/Eureka) comes into play this week with 19.  Meiko Pearson (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest) has a team-leading 105 digs, while Annie Arand (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia) and Elise Mehaffy (Marion, IA/Marion) share the team lead with 139 assists.

ABOUT OKLAHOMA BAPTIST: The Bison are 4-4 on the season, but have won four of their last five matches which includes a straight-set win over a nationally-ranked Northwest Missouri State team on Saturday.  OBU, who has played four top 25 teams in its first eight contests, has five players with at least 50 kills on the season with Jill Leslie leading the way with 65 and Lauren Safrit close behind with 63.  Leslie also has a team-high 22 blocks.
 
ABOUT UPPER IOWA: The Peacocks are 4-3 on the young season and went 2-1 in an event at Quincy last weekend, beating Edinboro and Newman in straight set before dropping a five-set decision to the host Hawks.  Emily Kono ranks eighth in the GLVC with 92 kills, while Zoe Semelroth has the league's fourth-best attack percentage at .360.  Semelroth also leads Upper Iowa with 22 blocks.

Friday's game will be a non-conference game between the two GLVC foes.

ABOUT NORTHWESTERN OKLAHOMA STATE: The Rangers finished last weekend with a 2-6 record – they host Southeastern Oklahoma State in their Great American Conference opener Tuesday night and are looking to snap a five-game losing streak in that contest.  Over their first eight matches, Northwestern has been led by Erika Ascensio Soriano with 89 kills and Marieta Jimenez with 60 kills and a .321 hitting percentage.  Jimenez has also accumulated 24 blocks, three behind team leader Carmae Jones.