Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Missouri State
Missouri State handles Volleyball in three
10/16/2010 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 16, 2010
By Dana Ingraham
SIUSalukis.com
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Missouri State held Southern Illinois to just nine kills in the third set on the way to handing the Salukis their second shutout in as many nights Saturday, 26-24, 25-21, 25-13.
SIU falls to 12-7 and 3-6 in the Missouri Valley Conference while Missouri State improves to 16-4 and 7-2 in the conference.
Hitting errors continued to plague Southern, this time posting 24 miscues to MSU's 17, contributing to a new season-low .071 overall percentage.
"It was the same story as last night with our errors and their blocking," said head coach Brenda Winkeler. "It seemed like in streaks we'd just start to hit balls out of bounds, but we have to give credit to Missouri State's blocking effort."
The Bears finished with 18 block-assists against SIU's six.
Southern kept it close in the first set, trading points with Missouri State to tie the score 16 times. The Dawgs went ahead at 17-15 on a Rachael Brown ace and again at 18-16 on an Alicia Johnson kill. After breaking a 22-22 tie with a Missouri State error, the teams were locked again at 24 until MSU knocked out the last two points to dash SIU's chances.
"We had a shot to win the first set, which has kind of been the story for us all year," Winkeler commented. "I think if we would have finished out that first set the match might have gone a little differently."
Missouri State broke out in the second set with a 13-6 lead before Alysia Mayes capped a four-point SIU run with a kill. The Salukis knocked on the Bear's door again late in the set, down just 23-21 but gave away the last two points again to fall behind 2-0.
SIU could not keep up with MSU in the third set, trailing by as many as 11 and hitting just .030.
Two Salukis recorded double-doubles, Rachael Brown (25 assists, 11 digs) and Jennifer Berwanger (11 kills, 11 digs). Johnson lead SIU's defense with 18 digs.
"After this weekend, we know some of the things we need to simulate better in practice," said Winkeler. "Our offense flows a little better against a smaller team, so we need to go back in and adjust our own blocking game."
With the first half of the Valley schedule complete, SIU returns home to Davies Gym next weekend for a single match against Evansville Friday, Oct. 22 at 7 p.m.
