ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T opened its second men's volleyball season Sunday afternoon by sweeping visiting Dominican (Ill.) at Gibson Arena, using a strong offensive attack to defeat the Stars by scores of 25-22, 25-21 and 25-20.
The Miners finished the afternoon with a .310 attack percentage and got a combined 30 kills from
Aaron Sallade (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd) and
Nate Meyer (Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey) to dispatch a Dominican team – playing its third match in as many days – that hung tough in each of the three sets before the Miners were able to make late runs in each set to win them. Even though S&T led for a majority of the day, the match was tied on 23 occasions.
The opening set saw the two teams stay within a point of one another for good portion of it until the Stars (1-2) scored three straight points to take a 19-16 lead. After Sallade recorded a kill to halt that short run, S&T scored four more points in succession with
Jackson Daugherty (Wichita, KS/Bishop Carroll) on serve, taking a 20-19 lead on a kill by
Caleb Rohlwing (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) and closing it with a Meyer's fifth kill of the set.
S&T's best hitting mark came in the second set as it hit .375 with only two errors along the way. The Miners got out to an early 3-0 lead, then after the Stars were able to draw even at eight, S&T went back in front on a kill by Sallade and would begin pulling away just past the midway point of the set. S&T led by as many as six points in the set on two occasions and closed out the set on a
Zachary Carff (O'Fallon, Mo./St. Dominic) kill.
Sallade then dominated the third set on the offensive side as he recorded nine kills with only one error in 13 attempts. After dropping the first three points of the set, S&T took the lead in the set for good following a kill by
Caleb Rohlwing (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) to go up 15-14, then Sallade had kills on four of the Miners' final 10 points to close out the victory. S&T also got three of its six blocks in the match in that late stretch, with Meyer and Rohlwing having a hand in two apiece.
Rohlwing added eight kills and four blocks for S&T and Carff added six kills. S&T also got 37 assists from
Grant Edmonds (Shawnee, KS/Edison) and 11 digs from Sallade.
Missouri S&T will return to action on Jan. 26 when it begins play at the Park Invitational with matches against Morningside and Viterbo.
