ROLLA, Mo. – After losing a tough five-set match to Quincy on Friday evening, Missouri S&T's volleyball bounced back Saturday afternoon with a solid straight set win over Illinois Springfield in Great Lakes Valley Conference play at Gibson Arena.
The Miners rallied from early deficits in each of the first two sets to win by counts of 25-19 and 25-18, then completed the sweep with a 25-16 third set win to improve to 8-4 overall and 1-1 in GLVC play.
Saturday's game also saw senior outside hitter
Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South) become the seventh player in program history to reach 1,000 kills for a career, as she recorded a team-high 14 and hit .344 in the contest.
Burton played a key role as the Miners overcame a 14-9 deficit in set one, as she recorded six kills during that segment. After being down by five, S&T ran off nine of the next 11 points to take the lead before Burton helped finish off the Prairie Stars (3-9, 0-2 GLVC) with kills on four of the final six points posted by the Miners.
S&T fell behind 12-9 in the second set, but a kill by
Madison Offerman (Herscher, IL/Herscher) and a service ace that followed by
Annie Arand (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia) started another rally as the Miners outscored UIS 9-4 to take an 18-16 lead. UIS closed to within a point at 19-18 before the Miners ran off the final six points of the set to win it, the final point coming on what turned out to be Burton's 1,000
th kill.
The Miners took the lead for good early in set three and was able to build as much as an 11-point advantage in the set, thanks in large part to holding UIS to a -.022 attack percentage in the final stanza.
S&T hit .286 in the match and had only nine attack errors all afternoon, while forcing the Prairie Stars into 19 and an .076 attack mark for the day. Besides Burton's 14 kills, the Miners got seven from four others –
Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb),
Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central),
Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) and Offerman. Ply was also in on four blocks and Mason had a hand in three as the Miners had six in the contest.
Mia Alessio (Channahon, IL/Minooka) led the Miners with 17 digs and
Elise Mehaffy (Marion, IA/Marion) finished with a team-high 22 assists.
Missouri S&T heads to the road next week in GLVC play, starting with a Friday night contest at Southwest Baptist. Match time is at 6 p.m. in Bolivar, Mo.
