Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
Indiana State
Volleyball to host Indiana State, Illinois State this weekend
10/06/2016 | 9:28:00 | Women's Volleyball
| Southern Illinois (13-6, 4-1 MVC) vs. Indiana State (7-9, 1-3 MVC) / Illinois State (11-6, 4-1 MVC) | |
| Date & Time | Oct. 7-8, 2016 | 7 p.m. CTÂ |
| Location | Carbondale, Ill. | Davies Gym |
| Tickets | 877-SALUKIS | SIUSalukis.com |
| Video Stream | ESPN3 with Kelly Burke and Danny Valle |
| Live Stats | Sidearm Stats |
| Southern Illinois | Game Notes | Stats | Media Guide |
| Illinois State | Game Notes | Stats | Media Guide |
| Indiana State | Game Notes | Stats | Yearbook |
| MVC | Weekly Notes | Stats |
| All-Time Series | Overall: SIU leads Indiana State, 48-18-1 | Streak: SIU W3 | Last Meeting: SIU 3-1 (25-23, 22-25, 25-20, 25-23) Overall: Illinois State leads SIU, 70-10-1 | Streak: SIU W1 | Last Meeting: SIU 3-0 (25-20, 25-19, 25-22) |
| Social Media | @SIU_Volleyball    |  @SIUSalukis    |  Saluki Volleyball  |
The Southern Illinois volleyball team hosts Indiana State and Illinois State this weekend at Davies Gym. On Friday, the Salukis and Sycamores will serve it up at 7 p.m. with an online stream available at WatchESPN.com. SIU will then turn around and face Illinois State in a battle of two teams tied atop the Missouri Valley Conference standings on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 7 p.m. Tickets for the match are available online and by calling 877-SALUKIS.
The Opponents
• Indiana State (7-9, 1-3 MVC) enters Friday's match having lost its last two matches, and four of its last five, with back-to-back losses at the hands of Illinois State and Northern Iowa. Kynedi Nalls paces the Sycamore attack, as she averages 3.50 kills/set. Defensively Damadj Johnson averages close to 1.02 blocks per set. The Salukis lead the all-time series, 48-18-1, and have won three-straight over the Sycamores. Southern is 7-1 against Indiana State with head coach Justin Ingram at the helm.
• Illinois State (11-6, 4-1 MVC) comes into Saturday's match with a share of the conference lead but are coming off their first Valley loss of the season, a 3-0 sweep at the hands of Drake on Monday, Oct. 3. The loss snapped an eight-match Redbird winning streak. Preseason All-MVC selection Jaelyn Keene leads the Redbird attack, as she's hitting a team-best .473 and averages 3.18 kills/set. Saturday's contest marks the 82nd meeting since 1975 between the two Illinois state schools, with the Redbirds holding a commanding 70-10-1 all-time advantage. Southern swept the Redbirds at Davies a year ago, winning by the set scores of 25-20, 25-19, 25-22.
• SIU head coach Justin Ingram is in his fifth season at Southern Illinois and eighth overall season as a head coach. Ingram is 93-53 at SIU and 153-86 overall.Â
• Traci Dahl-Skinner is in his ninth year as head coach at Indiana State and is 98-165 entering Friday's match at SIU.
• Melissa Myers is in her ninth year as head coach at Illinois State and is 162-107. In her 14th year overall as a head coach, Myers has a career record of 323-156.
About the Salukis
• The NCAA's first RPI rankings of the season came out on Monday, and have SIU ranked 59th. RPI is determined by taking 25% of a team's winning percentage, 50% of its opponents winning percentage and 25% of the winning percentage of its opponents' opponents to rank teams based on quality of wins as well as quality of its opponents. Only Wichita State has a higher RPI in the MVC, as they are currently 42nd.
• SIU ranks 6th in the nation in team assists with 901. While the Salukis are sixth in the nation, they rank second in the conference behind UNI (908).
• The Salukis rank 11th in the nation in total kills with 940, trailing only UNI for the conference lead, as the Panthers have 999 total kills.
• Southern leads the MVC, and ranks ninth in the nation, in total blocks with 183. The Salukis also lead the conference in blocks per set (2.58), with Alex Rosignol's 1.25 blocks/set leading the Valley. Rosignol also leads the conference, and is 17th in the nation, in total blocks with 85.
• The Salukis have two middle hitters ranked in the top-10 of the Missouri Valley Conference in hitting efficiency. Kolby Meeks is hitting .370 and ranks fourth, while Alex Rosignol is hitting at a .341 clip, the sixth-best efficiency in the Valley.
• Mariana Pilon has cracked the top-10 of the MVC's total digs list, as her 252 this season are the eighth-most in the Valley.
• It had been nearly 15 years since SIU has won a match in which it needed to overcome a first set loss of 12 points or more, a feat the Salukis accomplished in their win over Missouri State on Sept. 26. It marked just the sixth time in school history that SIU has rallied from a 10-point or more loss in set one to win the match. The 12-point first set loss is the second largest margin of defeat in a first set of a Saluki victory dating back to 1975. The only other occurrence came in SIU's Nov. 23, 2002 win over Illinois State in the opening round of the MVC Tournament, in which Southern lost the first set 15-30, but rallied to win the next three, 31-19, 30-26 and 30-24 to take the match and advance. The win over Missouri State marks the first Saluki victory in the 25-point set era in which SIU suffered such a lopsided defeat in set one but rallied to win the match.
• Number of times SIU has won matches after losing the first set by 10 or more points.
9/26/16   at Missouri State   13-25, 25-16, 23-25, 25-19, 15-13
9/7/07   Cleveland State   20-30, 32-34, 31-29, 30-28. 15-10
10/7/03   UT Martin      19-30, 30-17, 30-21, 30-25
9/13/03   Appalachian St.      19-30, 30-28, 31-29, 30-27
11/23/02   Illinois State      15-30, 31-19, 30-26, 30-24
10/28/88   at Bradley      5-15, 15-3, 15-12, 15-10
• Abby Barrow and Andrea Estrada each had 20 kills in SIU's win over Missouri State on Sept. 26. It marked only the fifth time since 2000 that two Salukis recorded 20-plus kills in the same match, and the first time since 2012. On Oct. 12, 2012, Laura Thole and Alysia Mayes put down 22 and 20 kills, respectively, in SIU's 3-2 win at Bradley, and on Oct. 22, 2010, Jennifer Berwanger tallied 29 kills and Jessica Whitehead added 28 kills in SIU's four-set win over Evansville. Prior to the change to 25-point sets from 30-point sets in 2008, there were two instances of two Salukis notching 20-plus kills. On Aug. 31, 2002, Lindsey Schultz and Kristie Kemner put down 20 kills apiece in SIU's four set win over Southwest Texas St., and later that season on Nov. 23, Tara Cains tallied 27 and Kristie Kemner totaled 23 kills in Southern's five-set win over Missouri State in the MVC Tournament.
• In the win over Northern Iowa, head coach Justin Ingram won his 150th career match, and 90th while at SIU. He became the fourth head coach in Saluki history to reach the 90-win plateau, and is the quickest in the NCAA-era to reach the mark. Ingram needed just 142 matches to reach the mark, besting the 157 matches it took Debbie Hunter (1975-88) to do so.
• SIU has tallied 10-plus blocks in nine matches this season and are 9-0 when doing so.
• The Salukis have had 21 triple-doubles in school history dating back to 1982, of which Meg Viggars accounts for more than one-third of them (9). Her 11 kills, 16 digs and 38 assists against SEMO on Sept. 21, 2014 was the first triple-double by a Saluki since Holly Marita tallied 10 kills, 12 digs and 51 assists against Iowa on Aug. 30, 2003. Of the 10 times that a Saluki has finished in double-figures in kills, digs and assists, nine of them have come from Viggars. When Viggars recorded her sixth career triple-double at Butler on Sept. 19, 2015, she passed Dana Olden for most triple-doubles by a Saluki. Olden tallied five matches in which she reached double figures in kills, digs and blocks from 1989-92.
• The Salukis currently have three players hovering around the top-10 in school history for career double-doubles. Meg Viggars has recorded 53 career double-doubles, tied for the third-most in school history. She needs nine more this season to pass Kristie Kemner for most all-time. Andrea Estrada, who has 38 career double-doubles, ranks sixth and needs just two more to crack the top-five all-time. Hannah Kaminsky, who has recorded 28 assists-digs double-doubles, is tied for ninth all-time, needing just one more this season to move into sole posession of ninth on SIU's all-time list.
• The Southern Illinois volleyball team suffered its first Missouri Valley Conference loss of the season, falling to the Loyola Ramblers in four sets (23-25, 20-25, 25-23, 21-25). The Salukis (13-6, 4-1 MVC) dropped their first Valley match after starting the conference season 4-0 for the first time since 1995. Southern hit .282 for the match, including .429 during the first set. Loyola (8-9, 3-1 MVC) one-upped SIU, hitting at a .336 clip. Abby Barrow paced the Saluki offense, hitting a season-best .467 with 16 kills on 30 swings with only two errors. Kolby Meeks and Meg Viggars each added eight kills for the Salukis, while Mariana Pilon had a team-best 10 digs.
Up Next
• The Salukis will travel Monday, Oct. 10 to Wichita State for a showdown of the top-two MVC teams from a year ago. The match can be streamed on WatchESPN.com beginning at 7 p.m.
Player Notes
• Kolby Meeks tied a career-high with seven blocks in the sweep of Bradley on Sept. 30. She has recorded five or more blocks in six matches this season.
• In the win over Bradley on Sept. 30, Meeks tied a career-best by hitting at a .600 clip, putting down 10 of 15 swings with just one error.Â
• Andrea Estrada hit .400 in the win over Bradley, finishing with 10 kills on 25 swings and no errors. It marked the first time in her career that she has not recorded a hitting error.
• Estrada needs just 47 kills to become the 14th member of SIU's 1,000-kill club. Her 953 career kills are the 91st-most in NCAA D1.
• Mariana Pilon extended her 10-plus digs in a match streak to six over the weekend, finishing with 16 digs in the win over Bradley and 10 against Loyola. Pilon has reached double figures in 15 contests this season.Â
• Nellie Fredrikkson has recorded at least one block assist in all five MVC contests this season, including four in the win over Drake.
• McKenzie Dorris tallied five blocks in the loss to Loyola, and has now recorded multiple blocks in all 10 matches she's appeared in this season, and 19-straight matches dating back to the 2015 season. The senior middle blocker has done so in 39 of 54 matches during her career.
• Abby Barrow has recorded 10-plus kills in all five Valley matches this season, while her 3.86 kills/set average is the fifth-best in conference-only matches this season.
• Ashley Edelen set a new career-high with three assists in the win over Missouri State on Sept. 26.Â
• Hannah Kaminsky became the fifth Saluki with at least 3,000 career assists in the loss to Loyola, and has an outside shot at passing Lisa Cummins (1982-85) for fourth all-time. Kaminsky needs 242 assists to pass Cummins.Â
• Kaminsky also needs three service aces to pass Kristy Elswick (2005-08) for 13th on SIU's all-time list. The Woodridge, Ill., native has 113 career aces and is one of 15 to record 100-plus aces in a career.
• Meg Viggars needs 38 assists to become the 11th Saluki with 2,000 career assists and would join Debbie Barr as the only Salukis with 2,000 career assists/1,000 career digs.
