Rolla, Mo. – The University of Missouri-St. Louis volleyball team extended its winning streak to 11 with a 3-0 win against Missouri S&T on Saturday afternoon at Gibson Arena in Rolla, Mo. The Tritons improve to 13-5, 8-0 GLVC while the Miners are 9-9, 2-5 GLVC.
With UMSL's win on Saturday and Quincy's loss to Drury the Tritons clinch a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference tournament for the eighth straight year.
The opening set saw nine tied and seven lead changes. It was tied at 14 when UMSL went on a 4-0 run to grab an 18-14 lead. S&T battled back to within 18-17 but another surge gave the Tritons a 21-17 advantage after a kill from
Brooklyn Young,
UMSL led 23-19 after a kill from
Bridget Cassady but the Miners didn't go without a fight scoring three straight points to pull within 23-22. The Tritons were able to close it out as Young and
Marly Burbach blocked Selin Ozdemir for set point and then Burbach ended the set with a kill for the 25-22 victory.
UMSL trailed 18-12 in the second set before making its run. The Tritons ran off five of the next seven points to cut the margin to three but S&T got back-to-back kills to extend the lead to five. UMSL completed its comeback scoring the final eight points of the frame to win 25-22 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
The Tritons carried that momentum into the third stanza as they started on a 5-0 run and wouldn't trail in the frame. The Miners rallied to it at 11 but UMSL answered with a 6-0 run to regain control. S&T wouldn't get closer than two points the rest of the match as the Tritons scored three of the final four points to complete the sweep 25-21.
UMSL finished the contest with a hitting percentage of .244 recording 51 kills against 21 errors in 123 attempts and were led by
Alayna Santel with 14 kills while Johnson added 11 and Young finished with nine kills and two total blocks. Burbach had 43 assists and eight digs and
Skylar Weaver finished with 21 digs.
The Miners were held to a .157 attack percentage with 32 kills against 14 errors in 115 swings and were led by Elly Decker with 10 kills while Madison Smith finished with eight kills. Maggie Miller handed out 20 assists, Kate Zipprich had nine total blocks and Adelyn Weiler finished with 13 digs.
The Tritons will take a break in GLVC play as they'll head to Hammond, Ind., next weekend for the Midwest Region Crossover at the Hammond SportsPlex. Times and matchups will be announced on Monday.
