Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Southeast Missouri State
Volleyball Swept By SEMO
09/14/2004 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 14, 2004
By Lou Antoine
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - SIU Sophomore Jene' Pulliam's double-double (10 kills, 10 digs) couldn't stop Southeast Missouri State from sweeping Southern Illinois 3-0 to win its first match of the season after eight consecutive losses to open the 2004 campaign.
SEMO won game one 30-25 to snap a 24-game losing streak on their way to a 30-25, 30-24, 32-30 victory. The three games were more than the Othakians had won all season (two) entering the match.
"Whenever you have a winless team they are going to play hard, especially when SEMO is playing SIU. These two schools always get after each other and they played us hard tonight. We have to be consistent with our ball control and aggressiveness and we'll win more matches," said Lenika Lamar, SIU assistant coach.
The Othakians jumped out to leads of 10-4, 10-5 and 5-1 respectively in the three games. In game one, the Salukis were tied at 22-22, before SEMO finished with an 8-to-3 run to win the game 30-25. SIU was tied at 13-13 in game two and trailing 21-19 when the Othakians went on a 9-to-5 run to win game two 30-24.
Southern battled in game three, pulling away from a 24-24 tie to take a 26-24 lead. SEMO tied it at 26-26 and SIU took a 29-26 lead for game point, but the Othakians scored three straight points to go up 30-29. Southern tied the game at 30-30, but SE Missouri State had consecutive kills to win the game 32-30 and the match.
"SEMO played better defense than us tonight. We had more digs, but they blocked us out of the gym (8 to 4) and that's one of the areas they beat us in. Our ball control wasn't what we needed it to be, which hurt us in the match," Lamar added.
The Salukis played strong up the middle, led by Katy DeWulf, who hit .417 (8 kills, 3 errors, 12 attempts) and Marissa Washington, who hit .364 (6 kills, 2 errors, 11 attempts). Setter Holly Marita added a double-double with 27 assists and 10 digs, but for the first time all season, rightside hitter Haley Hann had less than ten kills (7) in a match.
The Salukis begin MVC play this weekend with matches against SMS and Wichita on Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. in Davies Gym.
