Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Volleyball Opens MVC With Creighton & Drake This Weekend
09/17/2003 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 17, 2003
By Lou Antoine
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. -
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The Southern Illinois volleyball team (2-7) begins Missouri Valley Conference play this weekend with its third consecutive road trip, when the Salukis face Creighton (2-7) and Drake (7-4) on Friday, Sept. 19 and Saturday, Sept. 20 in Omaha, Neb. and Des Moines, Iowa respectively. Both matches will take place at 7 p.m.
Despite opening MVC play on the road, Locke has strong expectations for her young SIU squad, most of whom will be playing their first MVC matches this weekend.
"Our ultimate goal is to get to the MVC Tournament (Nov. 28-29 in Springfield, Mo.) again. We know that we'll have to win some matches on the road and this is our first opportunity to do that and we are going into the weekend very determined to win. We expect to get at least one win. I've always said If we can split on the road and win at home, we'll be in good position to make the tournament. We don't want to rely on just one road win though, we want to get as many as we can," SIU head coach Sonya Locke said.
The Creighton match on Friday will be the first-ever volleyball match played at the Omaha Civic Auditorium (capacity 9,377) and will be webcast live on http://jayslive.creighton.edu. Locke doesn't expect all the hoopla to affect the Salukis.
"We didn't know about all the festivities and that doesn't make any difference to me. We're going to go in there expecting our kids to be focused on the task at hand, which is to play hard, play good defense and serve tough. If we get sidetracked then we'll suffer the consequences," added Locke.
Creighton has lost its last six matches after winning two of its first three, while Drake started 7-1 before losing all three matches last weekend. Despite the recent struggles of both squads, Locke knows they will be tough opponents on their courts.
"They're both big teams, but nothing we haven't faced already this season. They're going to play well because they're at home and it's a conference match. We'll just have to deal with anything that goes against us and worry about our side of the court. They both want to get to the MVC Tournament and it's been a while since Drake has been there and I'm sure they want to get there like we did last year. It's going to be tough, the MVC is a tough league and we have to play our best every time we step on the court," Locke stated.
The reigning MVC Coach-of-the-Year knows the weekend matches will be tough, but also knows her team can't afford to wait to win matches, they have to get off to a good start early in the MVC season.
"We don't want to wait until the second meeting with each team to win the matches we need to win to get into the MVC Tournament. We want to win now so that if we slip up we have some sort of cushion to fall back on," said Locke.
SIU earned its second win of the year last weekend with a 3-1 victory over Appalachian State at the Butler Invitational. The Salukis finished third at the tournament after losses to Butler (3-0) and San Francisco (3-1). Freshman outside hitter Haley Hann was named to her second all-tournament team (Saluki Invitational) of the year after leading SIU with 25 kills.
Southern Illinois is led by senior Kelly Harman (79 kills, 2.63 kills per game, 84 digs, 2.80 digs per game), sophomore Marissa Washington (.239 hitting %, 28 blocks, .88 bpg, 52 kills) and freshman Holly Marita (319 assists, 9.38 apg, 81 digs, 2.38 dpg, 18 aces), Hann (73 kills, 2.09 kpg, 13 aces, 24 blocks) and Ashley Saverine (68 kills, 2.27 kpg, 89 digs, 2.97 dpg).
Marita's .53 aces per game ranks second in the Valley and her 9.38 assists per game is eighth-best. Hann's .37 aces per game is currently tenth in the MVC rankings.
