ST. LOUIS – Delaney Humm recorded a career-high with 27 kills in the fourth ranked University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team's 3-1 win over eighth seeded Missouri S&T in the opening round of the NCAA Midwest Regional on Thursday evening at the Mark Twain Building. The Tritons improve to 31-1 while the Miners end their season with a record of 18-11.
The two sides went back-and-forth to begin the match as S&T held a 12-11 advantage near the midway point of the set before UMSL seized control with an 11-2 run to build its largest lead of the stanza at 22-14 on a kill from
Hannah Copeland.
The Miners wouldn't get closer than eight the rest of the frame as the Tritons took the opener 25-16.
S&T led by as many as five points in the second set but UMSL rallied to take a 21-20 lead late in the set after Copeland and Humm blocked Jordan Burton. However, the Tritons were unable to close out the set as the Miners scored six of the next nine points to win 26-24 and even the match at a set apiece.
S&T carried that momentum into the start of the swing set jumping out to a 5-2 lead before the Tritons caught fire scoring 11 of the next 14 points to build a 13-8 lead after Humm blocked Hannah Feltz. Humm had two kills and a block in that run.
The Miners fought back to within three but couldn't get any closer as UMSL closed the set on an 11-6 run to win 25-17 to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
The final stanza belonged to Humm as she recorded nine of her match-high in kills in the set. She hit .667 in the frame and added a block.
Lexie Rang added four kills while
Hailey Flowers and
Mya Elliott had three kills each.
S&T led early in the set but as was the case in set three, the Tritons ran off a long run to seize control and wouldn't let the Miners get closer than three the rest of the match. UMSL scored seven of the final 10 points to secure the victory.
The Tritons hit .331 in the contest with 70 kills against 16 errors in 163 chances and were led by Humm. Rang finished with a double-double recording 17 kills and 18 digs while Flowers and Copeland had nine kills apiece. Copeland hit .643 for the match.
Caitlin Bishop dished out 62 assists, Elliott, Humm and Copeland had four blocks each and
Kylie Adams finished with 20 digs.
The Miners had a hitting percentage of .167 with 51 kills against 24 errors in 162 swings. Madelyn Mason led S&T with 15 kills while Alina Carrillo added 14 and Burton finished with 10 kills. Annie Arand handed out 29 assists and Mia Alessio had a team-high 18 digs.
UMSL takes on fifth seeded Grand Valley State in the semifinal round of the NCAA Midwest Regional on Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. The Lakers swept fourth seeded Quincy in Thursday's final match of the day.
