Southern Illinois University
Cleveland State
Volleyball comes from behind to take Cleveland State in five
09/08/2007 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 8, 2007
By Shalae Schulte
www.siusalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois (6-2) volleyball team dropped the first two games of their match Friday night, then won three straight for the victory over Cleveland State (5-4) at the 28th Saluki Invitational in Davies Gym.
Game one of the five-game set was all Cleveland State, 30-20, the Vikings holding the Salukis to a .056 hitting percentage. SIU came back in game two, leading by as many as five points, but let the lead slip away falling 34-32.
Games two and three were never far apart keeping within five points, both games ending in favor of Southern 31-29 and 30-28. SIU carried that momentum into game five winning easily 15-10, led by Chandra Roberson with six of her 16 kills in the final game of the match.
Marina Medic and Kristie Berwanger paced the Salukis with 18 kills each. Medic hit .457, chipping in a match-high one block solo and six block assists. Berwanger added 11 digs and four block assists.
The Salukis hit .251, now 6-0 on the season when hitting above .250. Setter Brooklyn Robbins led the offense with 52 assists. The junior also pitched in five kills, eight digs and two service aces.
Defensively SIU out-blocked CSU 15.0 team blocks to 8.0. Robbins and Berwanger added four block assists, while Roberson put up one solo and five block assists in the victory.
Cleveland State was led by Beth Gruelich and Liz Fazio with 19 kills each. Mel Snyder recorded a match-high 61 assists, while Viking libero Jordan Bateman recorded a match-high 25 digs.
The Salukis will wrap up tournament play Saturday facing UMKC (12 p.m.) and Murray State (7 p.m.).
