ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team dropped its season opener to Missouri S&T in straight sets on Thursday evening at the Mark Twain Building.
The Tritons led by three early before the Miners went on a 10-3 run to grab a four-point lead at 11-7 after a kill from Madison Offerman. UMSL got back to within 12-10 after a kill from
Charlotte Richards but that would be the closest it got the rest of the frame as S&T closed the set on a 13-6 run. The Miners hit .440 in the stanza while holding the Tritons to a .119 hitting percentage.
UMSL scored the first two points of the middle stanza but after that it belonged to the Miners as they used an 11-3 run to build a six-point advantage and led by as many as seven in the frame.
The final set was the tightest of the three featuring 15 ties and eight lead changes. S&T scored the first three points of the frame and led by as many as four at 13-9. The Tritons rallied with a 6-1 run to take a 15-14 lead at the midway point after an ace from
Kylie Adams. UMSL led by as many as three late in the stanza but S&T went on a 5-1 surge to take a 24-23 lead and get to set point first.
The Tritons fought off the first set point as Richards knocked home a kill to even things at 24 but Shelby Ply came right back with a kill to give the Miners a 25-24 advantage.
Hailey Flowers and
Hannah Copeland teamed up on the second match point to block Abigail Widiker to even things at 25. S&T took advantage of a bad set and then Ply sealed the win with a kill to give the Miners the 27-25 victory.
UMSL was held to a .112 attack percentage registering 36 kills against 22 errors in 125 swings.
Lexie Rang led the Tritons with 10 kills in the contest while Richards added eight kills and 12 digs.
Caitlin Bishop was tied for the match-high in assists with 21 and Adams finished with a match-high 19 digs.
S&T finished the match hitting .298 with 46 kills against 12 errors in 114 chances. Jordan Burton led the Miners with a match-high 13 kills and was joined in double figures by Madelyn Mason and Ply with 11 and 10 respectively. Annie Arand was tied with Bishop for match-high in assists while Widiker had 17 digs and Offerman finished with four blocks.
The Tritons look to bounce back on Friday as they'll play a pair of matches at the Mark Twain Building. They'll take on Emporia State at 10 a.m. and Southern Arkansas at 5:30 p.m.
