Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Illinois State
Illinois State shuts down Volleyball
11/05/2010 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Nov. 5, 2010
By Dana Ingraham
SIUSalukis.com
NORMAL, Ill. - Illinois State stopped Southern Illinois in its tracks Friday night, handing the Salukis a decisive 3-0 shutout (27-25, 25-20, 25-17) in Redbird Arena.
SIU (14-9, 5-8 MVC) drops two spots in the Missouri Valley Conference standings to eighth place with the loss.
"We didn't come out ready to compete, we didn't pass well and our defense just wasn't where it needed to be," said head coach Brenda Winkeler. "We didn't play with a lot of energy. We made spurts a few times when we were down, but we can't expect to beat teams when we don't play aggressively and maintain a winning mindset."
The Salukis out-dug the Redbirds 53 to 48, but Illinois State's 48 kills and five service aces got the best of Southern in the end.
SIU made runs at ILS (16-11, 6-8 MVC) in both the first and second sets, but was never able to claim a lead in the match. Down 20-15 in the first, the Dawgs clawed their way back to tie the set at 22 with help from a couple of Jennifer Berwanger's team-high 12 kills. Illinois State gave up two consecutive set points on back-to-back kills from Alysia Mayes, and a pair of errors on either side of the net yielded another tie at 25 before the Redbirds capitalized on a Saluki error to wrap up the extended set.
ILS held a 7-2 advantage early in the second period, and built up a 23-11 lead before Southern scored on nine of 10 plays to stay within four points at 24-20 and force an Illinois State timeout. Berwanger and Jasmine Conner played tough defense at the net, supplementing a big block with a handful of kills to lead the SIU rally until one final Redbird kill put ILS up two sets to none.
Costly errors on Southern's part allowed Illinois State to all but run away with the third set to complete the sweep.
Berwanger recorded yet another double-double, leading the team in digs as well as kills (13), and posted a .370 hitting percentage.
With five matches remaining in the regular season, there is still room for SIU to improve in the conference rankings and contend for a spot in the MVC tournament. "We need to take tonight's match and learn from it," said Winkeler. "A lot of things are happening all over the Valley right now, so we need to be consistent and realize that we have to come out and perform every single night."
Southern Illinois will have its shot at Indiana State Saturday at 6 p.m. CT in Terre Haute, Ind.
