Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
South Alabama
Volleyball tops South Alabama
08/31/2012 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Aug. 31, 2012
By Robin Thuringer
SIUSalukis.com
ST. LOUIS-- The Southern Illinois volleyball team opened the Active Ankle Challenge Friday night with a win over the University of South Alabama.
The Salukis (3-1) continued their non-conference success with a win over South Alabama (2-2) in four sets winning in the final set by a margin of 13 points.
"We executed tonight at all levels, our effort was great and we really forced South Alabama into error situations and played hard," said SIU head coach Justin Ingram.
SIU kicked-off the night winning the first set 25-18. The Jaguars jumped out early on a 5-0 run but the Salukis answered working their way to a 11-10 lead. SIU maintained the lead shutting down the South Alabama offensive effort.
The second set was Southern's only misstep of the night. SIU and South Alabama went back and forth during the set stringing a pair a points together at a time until the Salukis allowed USA to take a late rally and pull away with a 25-19 win.
"We let go of some points in that set that really should have been easy, routine points for us," said Ingram.
The Salukis rebounded in the third (25-17) and fourth (25-12) sets showing command of the ball, never allowing South Alabama a lead.
"As the match progressed we really got sharp and were able to eliminate errors and play timely and at a high level."
SIU held South Alabama to just a .097 hitting percentage thanks largely to 15 blocks and 67 digs. Southern also got the job done offensively finishing with a .273 hitting percentage and 54 kills.
The tandem of freshman Taylor Pippen and senior Alysia Mayes pushed SIU into victory. Pippen contributed 12 kills for a hitting percentage of .450. Mayes knocked in 14 kills with an impressive hitting clip of .619.
"Alysia and Taylor carried a big load for us tonight and really set us up offensively hitting at such a high efficiency," said Ingram.
Senior Laura Thole added 14 kills while junior Jessica Whitehead recorded 12. Senior defensive specialist Bailey Yeager led in the backcourt with a team-high of 22 digs.
"The effort was really great tonight and we are gong to work hard to put together a game plan to come back and do the same thing tomorrow."
The Salukis continue play in the Active Ankle Challenge tomorrow taking on host Saint Louis at 12 p.m. followed by Vaparaiso at 4:30 p.m. Live stats are provided for all games and a live video stream is available for the SIU vs. Saint Louis match.
