HARROGATE, Tenn. – The Miners suffered their first loss since Match 6th tonight, losing in straight sets to the Lincoln Memorial University Railsplitters.
Set 1:
The Miners fell behind early, allowing the Railsplitters to go up by four off a trio of errors in the opening points. They grabbed the next three points though to cut the deficit to one. LMU took five of the next six points though, going ahead 9-4. They would later go on a four-point run that put the Miners behind by eight, eventually growing to ten at 18-8. The Miners would lock in for the remainder of the set, scoring six to the Railsplitters seven, but ultimately dropping the opening set 25-14.
Set 2:
The teams traded the opening two points before the Railsplitters went on another four-point run to go ahead 5-1. The Miners deficit would remain the same up to 8-5, when LMU went on a twelve-point run to go up 20-5. The Miners would take three of the next four points close the gap slightly.
Aaron Sallade (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd) would get a kill to give S&T one more point in the set before ultimately falling 25-9.
Set 3:
The third set was the closest of the match. After Lincoln Memorial took the first two points of the set, the two teams got stuck trading serves for a while. The Railsplitters were the only ones to string two points together during that stretch, bringing the score to 12-9. LMU would take three of the next four points to build their biggest lead of the set so far, before the Miners responded by taking three out of the next four off kills from
Josh Duett (Grain Valley, Mo./Grain Valley) and
Nate Meyer (Arlington Heights, Ill./Hersey). Down 16-13, the Miners gave up eight of the next nine points and found themselves one point away from losing the match at 24-14. They would grab one more point before losing the third and final set, 25-15.
The Miners struggled offensively, recording season lows in kills and hitting percentage with 16 and -.017, respectively.
Aaron Sallade (Palatine, Ill./William Fremd) had over a third of the teams' kills, recording six kills as well as the Miners' only service ace of the match.
The Miners will play the Railsplitters again tomorrow at 1 p.m. in their final match of the season.
