Southern Illinois University
Illinois State
Volleyball falls to Illinois State, 3-1
09/23/2006 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 23, 2006
By Shalae Schulte
www.siusalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois volleyball team won the third game of a four-game match, 30-23, with Illinois State Saturday night in Davies Gym to break an 18-game losing streak to the Redbirds dating back to 2003, but the Salukis (7-7, 2-2) couldn't shake a 30-game regular season losing streak dating back to 1990, eventually falling 3-1 (30-22, 30-18, 23-30, 30-20) to hand the Redbirds (5-8, 1-3) their first conference win of the season.
"We came out flat," Saluki head coach Brenda Winkeler said of the first-half of the match. "We came back in game three and played very aggressive and were better with our ball control. In the end, we were making too many errors in a row which makes it hard to come back."
The Redbirds, second in the league in digs this season, came out strong shutting down the Salukis' offensive leader Johannah Yutzy, holding the senior to just five kills in the first two games.
"We didn't match up well defensively, Winkeler said. "They do a good job frustrating the offense. They make you work hard for your kills."
The `Birds finished with 105 digs in the match, led by freshman libero Kasey Mollerus with a match-high 29 digs.
"She's a fantastic libero," Winkeler said. "We knew we couldn't put the ball deep to the end line because she was going to track it down."
Yutzy eventually finished with 15 kills in the match, adding two block assists for the Salukis.
Kristie Berwanger added 15 kills and 12 digs for the sophomore's second double-double of the weekend.
Saluki libero Kristy Elswick finished with a team-high 28 digs, while Kelsie Laughlin added 19, but SIU couldn't stop the Redbird offense from finishing the match with 64 kills, including 21 in game one and 18 in game four.
Kari Staehlin led all hitters with 18 kills for Illinois State. Peggy Riessen added 16, while Mary Catherine Richmond finished with 10 kills, 11 digs.
The Salukis will take a road trip north to take on Bradley Friday, Sept. 29. Southern then turns around to face Northern Iowa Saturday.
