BOLIVAR, Mo. – A grueling match Friday night went in favor of Southwest Baptist, as the Bearcats took the final two sets to down Missouri S&T's women's volleyball team 3-2 in a Great Lakes Valley Conference match.
The Miners (8-5, 1-2 GLVC) dropped the first set 26-24, then took the next two by counts of 25-14 and 25-22 to take a 2-1 lead in the match. However, the Bearcats (8-7, 1-2 GLVC) used a surge in the second half of set four to win 25-17, then ran off the final six points of the decisive fifth set to win 15-9 and take the match.
S&T, playing in its first road match in three weeks and facing an SBU team playing in its home opener, never held the lead in a close first set. The Miners trailed by as many as five points, but was able to draw even at 22 after a kill by
Madison Offerman (Herscher, IL/Herscher) and were tied against at 23 and 24 –
Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) had kills for S&T to tie the set on both occasions – before the Bearcats scored the final two points to claim the set.
The second set was all Miners from the early stages, as after leading 8-4, S&T ran off 14 of the next 19 points to take a 22-9 advantage. S&T hit .194 in the second set while holding SBU to a .030 mark, then overcame eight attack errors in set three to take the lead in the match.
The Miners led most of the way in the third set, but didn't take the lead for good until Mason had back-to-back kills to give S&T a 9-7 lead. SBU got to within a point at 23-22, but another kill by Mason and a service ace by
Meiko Pearson (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest) wrapped up the set win for the Miners.
But in set four, the Miners had three leads in a set that also had seven ties, but the Miner leads were all early on. S&T led 8-6 after a block by
Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) and
Elise Mehaffy (Marion, IA/Marion), but a 4-0 run by the Bearcats allowed them to retake the lead. The set was tied at 12 following a combined block by Mason and Offerman, but SBU ran off five straight points and never looked back as it sent the match to a fifth set.
The Bearcats carried the momentum from set four into the fifth, scoring the first three points to take the early advantage. S&T caught up at five apiece after a block by Offerman and again at nine following a three-point run that included a kill by Ply. However, the Bearcats got a kill from Rolla native Loran Pritchett to start their decisive 6-0 run that ended the match.
Mason had 16 kills to lead the Miners and Ply was also in double figures with 10, but S&T hit just .074 in the match. S&T did record 12 blocks in the match – Offerman had seven and Mason was in on six – while
Mia Alessio (Channahon, IL/Minooka) had 32 digs and
Annie Arand (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia) finished with 26 assists.
Missouri S&T will face Drury Saturday at 3 p.m. in Springfield, Mo.
