Salukis Outlast Skyhawks in Five-Set Thriller

Saturday, August 25

Louisville, KY

2 p.m.

Southern Illinois University

2-1

University of Tennessee at Martin

1-2

Team	1	2	3	4	5	Final F
Southern Illinois	19	25	25	13	15	3
UTM	25	22	20	25	10	2

08/25/2018 | 5:57:00 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

Maggie Nedoma, Patience Brown named to All-Tournament Team

The Southern Illinois University volleyball team outlasted the UT Martin Skyhawks in a five-set thriller to close out the Cardinal Classic with a win and improve to 2-1 on the season. SIU rallied from a first set defeat to take set two and hit .310 in the third frame to go ahead, 2-1. After the Skyhawks took the fourth set, the Salukis led from start in the decisive fifth frame to seal the win. Senior Patience Brown and sophomore Maggie Nedoma represented the Salukis on the All-Cardinal Classic team.

Top Performers
Maggie Nedoma - 23 kills | 7 digs | .279 hitting percentage
Patience Brown - 13 kills | .407 hitting percentage
Alison Thomas - 23 digs | 3 assists | 1 ace
Alayna Martin - 43 assists | 15 digs | 1 ace
Rachel Maguire - 8 kills | 12 digs | 2 aces
Laura Rojas - 11 digs

How It Happened

The Skyhawks scored the first four points of the first set and forced the Salukis to play catch up throughout the opening frame. Southern clawed back to within two, 15-13, on back-to-back kills by Patience Brown but the Skyhawks answered with a 4-0 burst to take a commanding lead.
A back-and-forth tilt ensued in the second set, as the first half of the set featured 10 lead changes and 9 ties. Three-straight kills by Rachel Maguire gave SIU an 11-9 lead and an ace by Maguire extended Southern's lead to three, 13-10.
The Salukis led by as many as four before UT Martin used a 4-0 spurt to tie the set at 15-all.
The score remained tied until an Emma Baalman kill and a Skyhawk error gave Southern a 22-20 lead that it never surrendered.
The two teams exchanged sideouts throughout the first half of the third set. Southern took its first two point lead at 13-11 on Brown's eighth kill of the match and reeled off seven of the next 12 points to build a three-point cushion, 20-17. Back-to-back kills by Nedoma and an ace by Alison Thomas gave Southern a 22-17 lead and the Salukis closed out the set on Nedoma's 15th kill.
In the fourth set, the Skyhawks broke a 6-all tie with a 11-3 run to build an eight-point cushion and force a fifth set.
The Salukis were not to be denied in the fifth set. SIU led from start to finish in its decisive 15-10 set five win and broke a 7-all tie with an emphatic 5-0 run.

Inside the Match

Maggie Nedoma led all players with a career-high 23 kills and hit at a .279 clip. The sophomore reached double figures in kills for the third-straight match, which equaled the longest such streak of her career and her 61 attempts were also a new career-best. Her 23 kills were the most by a Saluki since Andrea Estrada put down 24 kills vs. Illinois State on Oct. 13, 2015.
Patience Brown hit .407 with 13 kills on an efficient 27 attempts. The 2017 All-MVC Second Team selection hit .403 on the weekend, including .481 in SIU's season opening win over IUPUI.
Alayna Martin recorded her 13th career double-double with 43 assists and 15 digs.
Alison Thomas finished with a team-best 23 digs and led the Salukis with a 4.58 digs per set average over the weekend.
Rachel Maguire finished with eight kills, 12 digs and two aces. The Bloomington, Ill. native also tallied two aces in the win over IUPUI and her four aces are tops on the team.