ST. LOUIS – The fourth ranked University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball hosts a familiar foe in its opening match of the NCAA Midwest Regional on Thursday taking on eighth seeded Missouri S&T at 5 p.m. at the Mark Twain Building.
Thursday's contest will be the third meeting of the season between the Tritons and Miners with UMSL having won the first two contests in four sets each match. The two sides last meet in the semifinal round of the GLVC Tournament in Williamsville, Ill., just 10 days ago. S&T took the opening set but the Tritons rallied to win the next three.
Thursday's match will be the third of four matches at the Mark Twain Building. The first match of the day will be between sixth seeded Rockhurst and third seeded Lewis and will be followed by seventh seeded Hillsdale and second seeded Ferris State. Thursday's final match features fifth seeded Grand Valley State against fourth seeded Quincy.
The winners of Thursday's quarterfinal contests will advance to Friday's semifinals starting at 5 p.m. The semifinal winners will meet on Saturday at 7 p.m. with the winner advancing to Moon Township, Pa., on the campus of Robert Morris University the following week for the NCAA Championships.
The Tritons (30-1) are making their seventh appearance overall in the NCAA Tournament, fifth since 2010 and fourth straight. UMSL has won five of its last seven matches in the tournament and went 4-1 last season on its way to the national semifinals.
The Tritons continue to rank as one of the top offenses in Division II this season. They're ranked second in the country in kills per set at 15.08 and in assists per set with 13.99. They're also third in hitting percentage at .289.
Caitlin Bishop ranks second nationally in assists per set with 12.28 and is sixth in total assists at 1,265.
Delaney Humm and
Lexie Rang are 18th and 19th in kills per set with 4.21 and 4.17 respectively.
The Miners are making their third appearance overall in the NCAA Tournament and first since 2014. S&T is 0-2 all-time in the tournament losing to Hillsdale in 2011 and Grand Valley State in 2014.
The Miners enter Thursday's contest with a record of 18-10 and are 7-2 in their last nine matches with both losses against UMSL. S&T won seven straight contests in between those two losses.
The Miners are one of the top blocking teams in the GLVC averaging 2.14 blocks per set and are led by Shelby Ply and Madelyn Mason with 0.94 and 0.80 per set.
Offensively, S&T is averaging 12.8 kills per set with an attack percentage of .212 and are led by Mason and Jordan Burton with 3.17 and 3.08 per set. Annie Arand leads the team with an average of 5.75 assists per set while Elise Mehaffy is averaging 5.08 assists per set.
Defensively, the Miners are averaging 15.6 digs per set and are led by Mia Alessio with 4.04 digs per set.
