Volleyball falls to Bradley in MVC opener

Friday, September 21

Carbondale, IL

7 p.m.

Southern Illinois University

4-10,0-0

Bradley University

11-2, 0-0

Team	1	2	3	Final F
Bradley	25	25	25	3
Southern Illinois	16	12	21	0

09/21/2018 | 10:53:00 | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The Southern Illinois University volleyball team fell to the Bradley Braves, 3-0 (25-16, 25-12, 25-21) in its Missouri Valley Conference opener Friday night inside Davies Gym.

Inside the match

• The Salukis got off to a fast start in the first set as they used a 6-1 spurt to take a 7-4 advantage. The Braves scored seven of the next eight points before Ortiz's second kill cut SIU's deficit to two, 11-9. That was as close as Southern could get in the opening frame, as Bradley used a 6-1 run to build a commanding lead it never relinquished.
• The Braves hit .385 and limited the Salukis to a .067 hitting percentage in the second set to take a 2-0 lead.
• SIU switched up its lineup at the end of the second set and into the third set, highlighted by Rachel Maguire's triumphant return from injury. Maguire, who hadn't played since Sept. 1, finished with seven kills, all of which came in a closely fought third set.
• The Salukis used a 4-1 run to break an 11-all tie and take a 15-12 lead in the third stanza. The Braves rallied to take a 17-16 lead before back-to-back kills by Alayna Martin and Maguire staked Southern to an 18-17 advantage. That was Southern's final lead though as Bradley scored six of the next seven points to build a four-point lead it never surrendered.

Inside the numbers

• Malvis Ortiz had a career night, as she posted personal-bests in both hitting percentage (.381) and kills (9). The senior outside hitter nearly doubled her season total in kills Friday night as she came into the match with 10 kills on the season.
• Patience Brown tied for the team lead with nine kills and hit at a .353 clip. It marked the third time in four matches that the Bloomington, Ill. native has hit above .300.
• Rachel Maguire finished with seven kills, seven digs and an ace in her first match since Sept. 1.
• Alayna Martin dished out a team-best 29 assists while Alison Thomas led with the defensive efforts with 10 digs.

Quotables

Kari Thompson, Head Coach
on Rachel Maguire's return from injury
"First time Rachel has been back on the court since her injury and I'm happy with what she did. She was a good spark in the third set. She competes hard on every play and its something we missed when she was hurt."

Kari Thompson, Head Coach
On Bradley's defense
"I thought we had the right defensive strategy going in. We needed to block better than we did. They definitely did a much better job blocking then we did. They are a great defensive team, which is something we talked about going into this match. We knew there would be long rallies and that we would take really good swings and (Bradley) would still find a way to bring it back. I thought we played with that for points and then there were other times where we forced a swing that wasn't the right swing to take at that point trying to get a kill that wasn't there."

Next Up

The Salukis host the Illinois State Redbirds tomorrow, Sept. 22 at 7 p.m. before traveling to Valparaiso on Monday, Sept. 24.