Joplin, Mo. – The Missouri Southern volleyball team came-from-behind tonight to take a five-set thriller with visiting Newman inside the Leggett & Platt Athletic Center. Individual set scores were 25-22, 18-25, 17-25, 25-23 and 15-8.
 
Southern (9-11, 4-7 MIAA) took the opening set tonight, but had to win sets four and five to take the match.
 
Fernanda Canedo finished with 18 kills and eight digs, while Irina Alekseeva and Amelia Neels added 13 kills each. Neels had six blocks, while Alekseeva had three.
 
Sophie Mader dished out 54 assists and added 13 digs, while Abbie Casper had 29 digs of her own. Hannah Allick had 15 digs, while Jaryn Benning had six blocks.
 
Newman (7-14, 2-9 MIAA) was led by Riley Daugherty with 13 kills.
 
The Lions took care of business in set one, building a big lead and holding on for the win. Set two and three belonged to the Jets as Newman went up 2-1 heading to the fourth.
 
The Jets built a 9-5 lead early in the fourth set but the Lions fought back and got within three (13-10), forcing a Newman timeout. Coming out of the timeout, the Lions tied the set at 15 and again at 18 and 19, before scoring two-straight to lead 21-19 after blocks from Neels and Canedo. Newman got within one (23-22) forcing a Lions' timeout, but the Lions scored two of the next three to win the set.
 
Set five was all Lions. Southern jumped out to a 4-1 lead, but the set was tied at four before the Lions scored five of the next six points to lead 9-5 and force a Newman timeout. The lead was 12-5 forcing another Newman timeout, but a kill from Neels closed out the match.
 
The Lions will be back in action this weekend as southern is at Central Missouri on Friday and Missouri Western on Saturday.