Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Creighton
Volleyball's winning streak halted by Creighton
09/17/2010 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Sept. 17, 2010
By Dana Ingraham
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - It was a fight to the finish in the first Missouri Valley Conference match in Davies Gym this season, but Southern Illinois came up empty-handed against Creighton, falling in three sets 26-24, 25-22, 25-20 Friday night.
SIU (9-2, 0-1 MVC) struggled against a considerably taller Creighton lineup and could not seem to get things rolling offensively, posting a season-low .129 hitting percentage.
"If you look at the story of the game, we just gave them too many opportunities offensively," said head coach Brenda Winkeler. "We gave up too many easy balls on offense. You can only dig so many times in a row, and our offense just was not what we needed it to be tonight."
The Salukis kept it close in the first set until they fell into a hole, trailing 20-14. A Jennifer Berwanger kill and two Bluejay errors brought the Dawgs to within three before a kill from Jasmine Conner tied the set at 22. Southern found itself at match point following a block from Alicia Johnson and Jasmine Conner, but four straight Creighton points swept the Salukis off their feet as they dropped their first opening set this year.
SIU led early in the second set at 4-1, until Creighton's offensive trifecta of Allie Oelke, Alicia Runge and Megan Bober got the best of the Salukis. Oelke and Runge combined for exactly half of CU's 46 kills, while Bober contributed 38 assists. Offensive errors plagued the Salukis at the end of the second, allowing just enough room for the Bluejays to squeak by with another win.
"Creighton has a lot of different weapons," Winkeler commented. "Their setter causes some problems because she is tall and does some tipping, so we went in with our game plan trying to stop her. We did make a good comeback in the first set, and I think it would have been a different match if that set went a little differently. We showed a lot of hustle on defense, we just gave them too many opportunities to put the ball away."
Southern was down by as many as 11 points in the third set, but with the score at 23-12 in Creighton's favor, the Salukis rallied for a momentous comeback sparked by the strong play of freshman Jessica Whitehead stepping in at the net. Whitehead threw down two of her four kills as SIU put up eight points in nine plays to cut the deficit to four at 24-20, but a final Creighton kill made it an early night for the Salukis.
SIU had four players finish with double-digit digs against a team that entered the contest leading the Valley in digs per set. Bailey Yeager tied her career-high mark of 22 digs and Alicia Johnson was not far behind with 18. Berwanger posted 11 digs, and Rachael Brown tallied her ninth career double-double with 28 assists and 10 digs.
MVC action will continue tomorrow when SIU hosts Drake at 4 p.m. Evansville handed Drake its first lost of the season Friday night, handling the Bulldogs in five sets.
"It will be a different matchup for us tomorrow against Drake," Winkeler said. "They get it moving with a quick offense, whereas tonight we got caught up defensively because of the blocking on the other side of the net. Hopefully we'll be able to get our own offense back on track."
