Southern Illinois University
Missouri State
Volleyball drops three games to Missouri State
11/04/2006 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 4, 2006
By Shalae Schulte
www.siusalukis.com
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - The Missouri State volleyball team hit .352 with 58 kills and just 15 errors, holding Southern Illinois to just 52 points in three games, sweeping the Salukis Saturday night in Missouri Valley Conference action, 30-18, 30-22, 30-12.
The Bears (21-6, 11-3) more than doubled the Salukis' (11-14, 6-9) kill total of 24, holding SIU to a .074 hitting efficiency.
"Missouri State is a good team," Winkeler said. "Three of their hitters hit above a .500 efficiency and we couldn't answer."
MSU virtually shut down the SIU offense, as no Salukis recorded over five kills.
"We struggled with ball control tonight," Saluki head coach Brenda Winkeler said. "We didn't block well. All around this was not a very good performance."
Kristie Berwanger, Chandra Roberson and Kelsie Laughlin recorded five kills each to lead SIU. Roberson added three block assists.
Erika Bartruff recorded a double-double for the Salukis with 19 assists and 10 digs.
Libero Kristy Elswick added 10 digs, bringing her season total to 497, just seven digs away from the all-time season dig record at SIU.
Defensively, the Bears out-dug the Salukis 63 to 39, including a match-high 13 each from Adeana McAfee and Nikki Vandepopulier.
Three MSU players recorded double-digit kills, including Jamie Adams (17), Erin O'Connor (13) and Sarah Lansing (10).
"We just have to pick ourselves up and focus on Evansville," Winkeler said. "We need this game to stay in contention for the MVC tournament."
The Salukis return to action Friday, Nov. 10, when they host Evansville in a pivotal Missouri Valley Conference match up that may help seal SIU's post-season fate. The match begins at 7 p.m. at Davies Gym.
