Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Northern Iowa
Volleyball swept by No. 13 UNI
10/29/2010 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Oct. 29, 2010
By Dana Ingraham
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - A dominating Northern Iowa team extended its Missouri Valley Conference regular-season winning streak to 30 against Southern Illinois Friday night, as the Salukis fell at home to the No. 13 Panthers, 25-12, 25-20, 25-12.
"Northern Iowa is definitely a top team that hasn't really been pushed in the Valley so far," head coach Brenda Winkeler commented. "They have a lot of talent at every single position."
The balance and depth of UNI (21-2, 12-0 MVC) showed early and often in its quick three-set victory over SIU (13-8, 4-7 MVC).
The Panthers set the tone for the match right away in the first set, with the Salukis trailing by as many as 13. Southern fell victim to UNI's accurate attack, as the Panthers hit a lights-out .562 to the Salukis' .226. That would prove to be SIU's most successful offensive showing of the night.
"I was happy with our offensive performance in the first set, but we weren't able to match our offense with our defense," Winkeler said. "When we shifted our focus to defense, we didn't hit well."
SIU hung with UNI in the second set, scoring three-straight points sparked by a Jennifer Berwanger kill and capped with a block from Jessica Whitehead to tie the score at 10. Northern Iowa surged ahead to take a 19-13 lead, but Southern answered with five points in the next six plays, highlighted by two key service aces from Alysia Mayes. The Salukis were only down four at the 24-20 mark but would get no closer, the Panthers capitalizing on set point.
Southern was held to a .000 hitting percentage in the third stanza as it struggled to find any momentum. SIU had trouble dealing with UNI's two most potent offensive threats in Beth Discher and Amy Braun. Discher finished with 13 kills and zero errors in 19 attempts to hit .684, while Braun hit .400 with 10 kills.
Berwanger and Whitehead were the two bright spots in the Saluki offense with 11 and nine kills, respectively.
"We only relied on two people offensively tonight in Jen Berwanger and Jess Whitehead," said Winkeler. "That's just like having one receiver that you can throw to, and that is very difficult."
Lauren Blumhorst led Southern with nine digs, and Rachael Brown recorded 21 assists.
The Salukis turn around to take on Bradley Saturday at 5 p.m. in Davies Gym.
"Tomorrow we have to make sure we are taking care of things," Winkeler said. "We need to improve our passing and putting balls in bounds."
