Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
7-4
Missouri
10-0
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Illinois | 15 | 27 | 18 | 21 | 1 |
| Missouri | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 3 |
Salukis drop match against undefeated Missouri, 3-1
09/18/2015 | 12:00:00 | Women's Volleyball
By Elizabeth Robinson
SIUSalukis.com
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – The Saluki volleyball team rallied for a tight match, but was ultimately unable to knock off undefeated Missouri, falling 3-1 in SIU's first match at the Butler University Invitational on Friday. After dropping the first set, SIU powered back with a strong showing in the second to tie the set, 1-1, but was unable to maintain the momentum, dropping the final two frames. SIU moves to 7-4 on the season.
Junior Meg Viggars finished with yet another triple double – her second of the season and fifth overall – tallying 12 kills, 11 assists and 12 digs. She also finished with the team's highest attack percentage at .321. Junior Hannah Kaminsky contributed 25 assists and libero Mariana Pilon added 13 digs to the Salukis' effort.
"Meg was certainly a positive for us today. The numbers were stock piling in her favor and she hit over .300, so those are big numbers for her," head coach Justin Ingram said.
Large point runs by the Tigers, largely from kills by Alyssa Munlyn and Carly Kan, kept the Salukis at bay for the first set, despite an early lead to start the match. A six-point run put Mizzou ahead 19-10 in the first frame, prompting SIU to take a timeout. Missouri continued on, however, taking the first set, 25-15.
"Missouri's errors were just as abundant as ours, but they just killed a couple more and dug a bunch more than we did," Ingram said.
It seemed as if Mizzou would secure the second set, as the Tigers jumped out to an early lead in the second frame, topping the Salukis by as many as six points. Slowly but surely, though, SIU fought back to tighten the point margin. Down 24-20, sophomore Andrea Estrada served for five consecutive points for the Salukis, holding Missouri at set point with a combination of service aces and kills by sophomore Abby Barrow. A kill by Kaminsky put SIU at set point, and SIU secured the win, 27-25, on an attack error by the Tigers.
"That's the SIU group that needs to show up on the regular," Ingram said. "I'm pretty proud of the way we hung in there and there was no quitting or giving up. We felt like we could do it, and Andrea certainly helped us out with some pretty good service opportunities behind the line."
The Salukis played tight in the third set, but were again stopped by continuous point runs by Mizzou, leading to a 25-18 loss to put the match at 2-1. SIU came back with major point runs of its own in the fourth set, with the Salukis' highest attack efficiency of the day at .184. The score tied seven times with four lead changes, largely due to nine errors by Mizzou, three of which were forced by blocks from Estrada and sophomores Alex Rosignol and Nellie Fredriksson. Even distribution along the net allowed for kills from end to end, with Estrada, Barrow and sophomore McKenzie Dorris leading the set. Despite the close score, Missouri pulled away near the end, topping SIU 25-21 to close out the set and match.
SIU turns, now, to tomorrow's matches, where the Salukis will face Youngstown State at 10 a.m. followed by Butler at 5 p.m. Links to live stats for those matches can be found here.
