ROLLA, Mo. – A long stretch of home contests begins for Missouri S&T's women's volleyball team this weekend as the Miners begin a nine-game homestand with four contests in a span of three days in the Missouri S&T Volleyball Tounament at Gibson Arena.

The Miners, who went 1-2 at the Tampa Classic over Labor Day weekend, will begin play in the tournament when they face Emporia State at 7 p.m. in the only game scheduled for Thursday.  S&T will play in two of the five games slated for Friday as it takes on Lake Superior State at 2 p.m. and Union at 7 p.m., they plays in the last of the four games on Saturday's schedule as it faces Kentucky Wesleyan at 4 p.m.

S&T dropped a four-set decision to 24^th-ranked Gannon and suffered a straight set loss to fifth-ranked Tampa before rallying from a two-set deficit and win the final three sets to beat Central Missouri on Saturday.  Four Miners reached double figures in kills in the win, as Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South) recorded 18 and Madelyn Mason (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) and Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central) had 17 apiece.

Burton leads the Miners with 40 kills through three matches and Mason has recorded 36 while the fourth player that had at least 10 kills in the UCM match, Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla), has 27 on the season and is hitting a team-best .302.  Ply also leads the Miners with 12 blocks, while Mason and Hannah Feltz (Wildwood, MO/Eureka) have nine apiece.  Meiko Pearson (Overland Park, KS/Blue Valley Northwest) leads S&T with 52 digs, while Annie Arand (Washington, MO/St. Francis Borgia) leads the way with 70 assists.

ABOUT EMPORIA STATE: Emporia State, who was 4-25 last season, went 3-1 in its opening weekend of action in Kansas City, with the only loss coming in four sets to Rockhurst on Saturday.   The Hornets were paced on the offensive end by Sandora Sasaki with 52 kills, while Winny Harris had a .377 attack percentage in the four matches and added 11 blocks.

ABOUT LAKE SUPERIOR STATE: The Lakers went 0-4 in the UP Open at Northern Michigan to begin the season, with three of the losses coming to teams from the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference.  The first of the four setbacks came at the hands of second-ranked Concordia-St. Paul in straight sets.  **

ABOUT UNION: The Bulldogs also went 0-4 in their first weekend of action at Dallas Baptist, losing their first three in straight sets before falling in four to Texas-Tyler to close the weekend.  Four players had at least 20 over the four contests, led by Sydney Whittaker and Marie Torosian with 25 apiece, while Jordan Moore recorded nine blocks.

ABOUT KENTUCKY WESLEYAN: The Panthers played in the same event as Emporia State and went 0-4, including losses to nationally-ranked Northwest Missouri State as well as Rockhurst and William Jewell from the Great Lakes Valley Conference.  Hallie McGuire accumulated 38 kills in the four matches and Ava Rebarchik had 11 total blocks.