Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Saluki Volleyball is off to impressive 11-1 start
09/06/2013 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
Sep 19, 2012
By Robin Thuringer
SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, IL - How impressive is the start to this year's Saluki Volleyball season? The team boasts an overall record of 11-1 and the win against Illinois State on Saturday marked Southern's 11thstraight win. The program's longest winning streak in school history is 12 matches.
-Of the 11 matches Southern has won, eight have been three-set sweeps and only one has gone into five sets.
-The Salukis began conference play Friday night winning a five-set thriller against Indiana State. On Saturday, Southern swept Illinois State to begin conference play 2-0. The last time SIU opened conference play 2-0 was in 1998 under the direction of Sonya Locke.
-NCAA statistics were released Monday and Southern Illinois is ranked in the top-50 in all seven categories among all 328 Division I programs.
-15th in match win-loss percentage (.917)
-23rd in hitting percentage (.272)
-25th in kills per set (14.34)
-26th in aces (1.61) and assists per set (13.29)
-42nd in blocks per set (2.56)
-45th digs per set (16.61)
Alysia Mayes has won Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week twice.
-Alysia Mayes is having a breakout season. The senior middle blocker has been named the Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Week the past two weeks and was named the MVC Scholar-Athlete of the Week on September 5.
-Currently Mayes is nationally ranked in several statistical categories among all Division I players. She is ranked sixth in the nation in hitting percentage (.461), ninth in points per set (5.18), 17th in service aces per set (0.51), and 18th in blocks per set (1.44).
-Senior Bailey Yeager was recognized as the Missouri Valley Conference's Defensive Player of the Week and Scholar-Athlete of the Week. Yeager recorded 20 digs on Friday night against Indiana State to surpass 1,000 digs in her career at Southern. Yeager now totals 1,022 digs to place her sixth all-time in SIU history. Currently, Yeager is ranked 16th in the nation in digs per set (5.56).
-Sophomore transfer Amy Drabant is leading the Missouri Valley Conference in assists (407) and is ranked 16th nationally in assists per set (11.63).
-After the first weekend of Valley play and three weekends of non-conference matchups the Salukis sit atop the conference in first place and hold the lead in hitting percentage, opponent hitting percentage, assists, kills and service aces.
-Southern Illinois' six-game home-stand is over as the team hits the road this weekend traveling to Missouri State on Friday and Wichita State on Saturday to continue conference play. The Salukis have spent most of September in Carbondale as they hosted the Saluki Invitational and opened Valley play at home. Southern capitalized on home court advantage winning all six matches.
-Keep up with Saluki Volleyball on Twitter @SIU_Volleyball and on facebook.com/salukivolleyball
