ROLLA, Mo. - Looking to snap its longest losing streak of the season (three matches), the Truman State University volleyball team was at Missouri S&T on Friday night. The Bulldogs won the first two sets, but the Miners were able to force a fifth and deciding period before the Purple and White sealed the victory. The set scores went 25-21, 25-14, 18-25, 21-25, and 15-7.

Truman (19-8, 9-6 GLVC) won a match for the first time in nearly two weeks while Missouri S&T (14-13, 6-9 GLVC) has now been on the losing end in three straight and four of its last five matches. Friday marked the first time the Bulldogs have won a five-set match since November of 2016 when they defeated No. 15 Lewis in the semifinals of the GLVC Tournament. Since that day, the Purple and White had gone 0-5 in matches reaching a fifth set.

In Truman's 11th all-time meeting with Missouri S&T (10-1 record), it was led by Ellie Kaat (pictured/16 kills), Savvy Hughes (42 assists), Lauren Wacker (three aces and 21 digs), and Holly Hildebrand (eight block assists). Hildebrand was one of five Bulldogs with at least four block assists along with Ambria Whitlock (six), Hughes (five), Jocelynn Livingston (five), and Kaat (four). For Truman, those 28 block assists are its most since Nov. 11, 2017 at Rockhurst.

In the first set, neither team led by more than two points until Missouri S&T used a 6-0 run to go up by five, 15-10. That spurt only fueled Truman's fire, though, as it closed out the frame with 15 of a possible 21 points to lead the match 1-0.

The second set had a similar start as neither team could build its lead to more than two points before the Bulldogs went ahead by four, 13-9, thanks to a 6-1 run of their own. After that, the Miners could never get closer than three points (13-10, 14-11, 15-12, and 16-13) before the Purple and White ended it with nine of the final 10 points.

This may sound like a broken record, but there were no margins greater than two and a total of seven ties through the first 20 points scored of the third set. Once it was 10-10, the home team outscored its visitors by seven, 15-8, to cut the match score to 2-1.

In the fourth, Missouri S&T built its lead to six, 9-3, early on before Truman battled all the way back to get the first of five deadlocks at 12-12. The lead never changed hands, though, and the Miners ended the set with a 9-5 spurt to send the match to that fifth and deciding set.

The Bulldogs left no doubt in that period, though. Truman scored nine of the first 10 points and never led by fewer than six after that.

Next up, Truman will face a ranked opponent for the eighth time this season when it travels to No. 13 Drury on Saturday. First serve against the Panthers is set for 3 p.m. The Bulldogs haven't faced a ranked opponent that many times in a single season since 2016 when they had 10 such matchups.

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