The William Jewell College volleyball team opened up a two set lead and seemed to be on their way to a dominating sweep before Missouri S&T came storming back to take the match 3-2 by scores of 25-16, 25-10, 23-25, 16-25, 10-15. The Cards drop under .500 for the first time since September 16 as they now stand at 9-10 overall and 3-6 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. 

The night started well for the Cardinals as they opened a 6-0 lead behind two kills each from Paige Cunningham and Grace Miller. The Miners pulled within 15-10 but could get no closer as Cunningham and Stefanie Richterkessing combined for six of the final ten points to win the set 25-16. 

Jewell was even more dominant in set two opening a ten point lead early in the set at 14-4 and never looked back with a convincing 25-10 win. Junior Madeline Johnson led the way in set two with four kills while Richterkessing added three as the Cardinals hit .355. 

The Miners and Cardinals battled back and forth in set three before Missouri S&T finally pulled out the 25-23 win. Jewell struggled in the fourth, falling behind by as many as nine points early in the set and fell 25-16. 

Set five saw Jewell once again fall behind early 6-0 in the winner-take-all battle before head coach Carolyn Raynes was forced to call a timeout. The Miners helped Jewell crawl back in the game as errors scored the first six points for the Cardinals and pulled them within 8-6. Jewell returned the favor with two errors of their own which gave Missouri S&T just enough room to pull out the 15-10 win.

After opening with attack percentages above .350 in each of the first two sets, the Cardinals to .029 and -.067 in the final two sets while the Miners improved from .182 in the opener to a .500 clip in set five. 

Cunningham led Jewel with 13 kills followed by Miller with 13 and Johnson with eight. Johnson continued to put up a big wall at the net with four blocks with Jenna Rau adding three.

Defensively, the Cardinals had three players with double-digit digs led by Richterkessing and Olivia Tolberd with 25 a piece. Alix Weigel chipped in 13 digs, 23 assists and two aces.

Up next, Jewell will take a midseason break from GLVC play as they will take part in the Mizuno Midwest Regional Crossover which will host all 16 GLVC teams, along with member teams from the GLIAC and GMAC.  The tournament will match up top opponents of of each league in a 38 team event in Aurora, Ill. next Friday and Saturday.