The UMSL Tritons women’s volleyball team celebrates winning its NCAA Midwest Regional first round match over Missouri S&T, Thursday night at the Mark Twain Building. (Photo: Cedric Williams)

NCAA Midwest Regional	1	2	3	4	Final
#8 Missouri S&T (18-11)	16	26	17	18	(1)
#1 UMSL (31-1)	25	24	25	25	(3)

Nora Nichols
Staff Writer

NORMANDY, MO — Facing its in-state rival, Missouri S&T, for the third time this season, the University of Missouri-St. Louis women’s volleyball team turned to senior outside hitter Delaney Humm to be its winning key.

And boy, did she deliver.

The 5-foot-10-inch senior from Lincoln, Neb., posted a career-high 27 kills to lead the Tritons to a three sets to one victory in an NCAA Midwest Regional first round match at the Mark Twain Building.

“With this being my last year, I just wanna step up whenever my team needs me,” Humm said. “We all wanna win and keep going… S&T has a really good defense and I just felt like I was finding the right spot to get the ball through and it was just working.”

It worked all night for Humm, who had six kills in the first set, including the one that gave UMSL the lead for good at 13-12. The Tritons would go on to win that set 25-16.

S&T played its best in the second set. That’s when the Miners won 19 points by kills, led by Madelyn Mason, who had 15 in the match. S&T won the second set 26-24.

The third and fourth sets belonged to UMSL and its combination of terrific hitting and great defense. The Tritons hit 39.5 percent in the third set and 33.3 percent in the fourth, while holding the Miners to 13.3 and 13.9 percent, respectively.

Humm was a key factor in both final sets. She had seven kills in the third set and nine in the fourth, including a stretch of three straight kills that helped turn a tight fourth set into an UMSL route.

“S&T is really good at the net,” UMSL head coach Ryan Young said. “They’re a great blocking team. So we knew going on, we had to be (crisp) with our sets and hitting. It was great to see Delaney and really everybody come through like they did.”

Fellow senior hitter Lexie Rang had 16 kills, while middle blockers Hailey Flowers and Mya Elliott had nine kills and eight kills, respectively. Humm and Elliott both also had a match-high four blocks.

Sophomore setter Caitlin Bishop, who earlier in the day on Thursday was named the Division II Conference Commissioner’s Association (D2CCA) Midwest Region Player of the Year, had 62 assists. Three Triton players reached double-digits in digs. Kylie Adams had a match-high 20, Rang had 18, and Skylar Weaver had 13.

“Great team effort, it’s been that way all year,” Young said. “We’ve got a goal and we’re all trying to reach it.”

UMSL is now 31-1 on the year and as the No. 1 seed for the Midwest Regional, will play No. 5-seeded Grand Valley State, which defeated No. 4 Quincy, in the final match of Thursday night, in the regional semifinals on Friday.

That contest will follow the first semifinal of the night, Rockhurst versus Ferris State, which is slated to begin at 5 p.m. The UMSL-Grand Valley State will start at 7:30 p.m.

The winners of the two semifinal matches will meet in the regional championship game on Saturday. That contest, as all the Midwest Regional games are, will be played at the Mark Twain Building, with first serve set for 7 p.m.

#8 Missouri S&T (18-11)

#	Player	SP	Attack				Set		Serve		Block			Def		Rec
			K	E	TA	Pct	A	E	SA	SE	BS	BA	BE	DIG	BHE	RE	Pts
7	Widiker, Abigail	4	1	1	8	.000	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	13	0	0	2.0
13	Ply, Shelby	4	7	5	22	.091	1	0	1	0	0	3	1	1	0	0	9.5
3	Mason, Madelyn	4	15	4	29	.379	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	16.0
4	Burton, Jordan	4	10	4	41	.146	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	10.5
8	Alessio, Mia	4	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	18	0	1	1.0
17	Pearson, Meiko	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	11	0	1	1.0
22	Feltz, Hannah	4	4	4	13	.000	0	0	0	0	0	2	1	0	0	0	5.0
12	Arand, Annie	4	0	0	1	.000	29	1	0	0	0	0	0	8	0	0	0.0
20	Mehaffy, Elise	4	0	0	4	.000	17	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0.5
9	Carrillo, Alina	4	14	6	43	.186	0	0	2	1	0	1	0	10	0	1	16.5
16	Offerman, Madison	1	0	0	1	.000	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
TM	TEAM	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
	Totals		51	24	162	.167	50	1	6	1	0	10	2	64	0	3	62

#1 UMSL (31-1)

#	Player	SP	Attack				Set		Serve		Block			Def		Rec
			K	E	TA	Pct	A	E	SA	SE	BS	BA	BE	DIG	BHE	RE	Pts
10	Elliott, Mya	4	8	4	23	.174	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	4	0	0	10.0
18	Rang, Lexie	4	16	3	48	.271	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	18	0	2	18.0
14	Humm, Delaney	4	27	6	53	.396	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	0	30.0
1	Flowers, Hailey	4	9	3	21	.286	1	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	10.0
9	Adams, Kylie	4	0	0	0	0	5	0	1	1	0	0	0	20	0	0	1.0
7	Foster, Trysta	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
2	Edson, Rylee	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	9	0	3	1.0
5	Bishop, Caitlin	4	0	0	4	.000	62	0	0	0	0	2	0	9	0	0	1.0
17	Copeland, Hannah	4	9	0	14	.643	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	1	0	0	11.0
12	Weaver, Skylar	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	13	0	1	0.0
TM	TEAM	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.0
	Totals		69	16	163	.325	68	0	3	4	2	16	0	76	0	6	82

2023 NCAA Midwest Region Tournament
Quarterfinals – Thursday, November 30 – Normandy, Mo. (Mark Twain Building)
Match 1 – No. 3 Lewis (26-6) vs. No. 6 Rockhurst (21-7) – Lewis won 3-2
Match 2 – No. 2 Ferris State (25-7) vs. No. 7 Hillsdale (27-6) – Ferris State won 3-2
Match 3 – No. 1 UMSL (30-1) vs. No. 8 Missouri S&T (18-10) – UMSL won 3-1
Match 4 – No. 4 Quincy (24-5) vs. No. 5 Grand Valley State (26-4) – Grand Valley State won 3-0

Semifinals – Friday, December 1 – Normandy, Mo. (Mark Twain Building)
Semifinal 1 – No. 6 Rockhurst vs. No. 2 Ferris State – 5 pm
Semifinal 2 – No. 5 Grand Valley State vs. No. 1 UMSL – 7:30 pm

Championship Game – Saturday, December 2 – Normandy, Mo. (Mark Twain Building)
Midwest Region Championship – Semifinal winners – 7 pm