ROLLA, Mo. – Missouri S&T's volleyball team will play its first home games in nearly a month this weekend as it will play host to Great Lakes Valley Conference matches against Maryville and McKendree at Gibson Arena.  This weekend's games will be Pink Days at the venue for Breast Cancer Awareness.

The Miners, 12-7 on the season after going 2-1 at the Midwest Regional Crossover last weekend in Hammond, Ind., will face Maryville Friday at 6 p.m., before taking on McKendree in a 3 p.m. match Saturday afternoon.  As GLVC play resumes this weekend, the Miners are currently tied with Indianapolis for fifth place in the standings with five games remaining on the schedule.  The top eight teams will earn berths to the GLVC Tournament.

After losing its opening match to Davenport in five sets, S&T bounced back with a four-set win over Findlay and won the final two sets to take its final match of the event from Wayne State (Mich.).  Jordan Burton (Olathe, KS/Olathe South) recorded 51 kills in the three matches and had a .369 hitting percentage in those contests, including a mark of .619 against Findlay that was the best by a Miner this season.

Burton has 163 kills on the season, second to teammate Madelyn Mason's (Mount Horeb, WI/Mount Horeb) 177, while Abigail Widiker (Hammond, WI/Saint Croix Central) has recorded 144 kills and Shelby Ply (Rolla, MO/Rolla) has 139.  Ply's hitting percentage of .373 currently ranks second in the GLVC and her 1.07 blocks per set are the fourth-most in the conference entering play this weekend.

Madison Offerman (Herscher, IL/Herscher) is the only other Miner ranked on an individual basis, as she is second in the conference in blocks with 1.20 per set based on her 79 in 66 sets of play.

As a team, the Miners lead the GLVC in blocks with an average of 2.50 per set with 175 blocks in 70 sets.  S&T also has the fourth-best hitting percentage in the GLVC at .224 and have held its opponents to a .165 mark, which is also the fourth-best in the league.
 
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS:  Maryville enters the weekend at 16-8 overall and is 3-5 in GLVC play; the Saints also went 2-1 during the crossover event with wins over Ohio Dominican and Saginaw Valley State and then knocked off Webster in straight sets on Tuesday.  The Saints rank second in the GLVC in digs with 17.7 per set and are third in hitting percentage defense as teams are hitting .157 against them.

Ella Brinkmann leads Maryville with 298 kills, the third-most in the conference, while Caroline Glastetter has 237 kills for the year with a hitting percentage of .306 that ranks seventh in the GLVC.  Taylor Hasbrook's 4.57 digs per set rank as the fifth-best in the GLVC.

McKendree went 1-2 at the crossover and enters the weekend at 9-12 overall and 4-4 in the GLVC.  The Bearcats are paced offensively by Brianna Binder with 262 kills and Lauren McCurley, who has a hitting percentage of .264.

McCurley is also among the GLVC leaders in blocks, as she ranks third with 1.18 per set, while the Bearcats have a trio of players with over 200 digs this season in Binder, Colleen Preusser and Maddie Misner.