ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's women's volleyball team wraps up its nine-game homestand this weekend and also opens its Great Lakes Valley Conference schedule, as the Miners will play host to Quincy on Friday evening and Illinois Springfield Saturday to get the conference slate underway.

Saturday's game will be a Green Out at Missouri S&T, as fans are encouraged to wear to green attire to the game.  The first 300 S&T students will receive a free green Pickaxe Platoon shirt.

The Miners improved to 7-3 on the year after winning two of their three matches last weekend and have won seven of their last eight heading into Friday's GLVC opener.  After having its five-game winning streak snapped in a five-set loss to Oklahoma Baptist, S&T rebounded with wins over Upper Iowa and Northwestern Oklahoma State to get back on track.

In their seven wins this season, the Miners have each of those teams to a hitting percentage of under .200 and opposing teams have a mark of .177 for the season.  Meanwhile, the Miners have hit .250 or better in each of their last four matches and have raised their mark to .226 for the season.

Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) leads the Miners in that category with a mark of .356, which ranks fifth in the GLVC, while Alina Carrillo (Oviedo, FL/Hagerty) has a .275 mark. Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb), who had a career-high 23 kills in S&T's match with Oklahoma Baptist, leads the Miners with 131 kills and Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South) is also over the century mark with 113.

Mason also leads the Miners in blocks with 36, while Ply comes into the week with 33 and Madison Offerman (Herscher, IL/Herscher) and Hannah Feltz (Wildwood, MO/Eureka) have recorded 22 apiece.  Meiko Pearson (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest) leads S&T with 144 digs, while Annie Arand (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia) has 218 assists and Elise Mehaffy (Marion, IA/Marion) has added 196.

ABOUT QUINCY:  The Hawks, who won the regular season title in the GLVC last season, are off to a 10-1 start and received votes in this week's American Volleyball Coaches Association rankings.  The Hawks have the GLVC leader in attack percentage in Alice Pavan with a .503 mark, while Juliana Van Loo is hitting .348 on the year.  Emma Wijnbergen is averaging 4.6 kills per set and Pavan ranks in the top 10 in the GLVC in blocks with 40.

ABOUT ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD: The Prairie Stars bring a 3-7 record into the weekend, as they will play at Maryville on Friday prior to their match with S&T on Saturday.  Eirini Glynou leads UIS in kills with 144, while Ericka Snopko has a team-leading 19 blocks and Erica Sledge has recorded a team-leading 284 assists.  The Prairie Stars have a .157 hitting percentage on the season.