Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Southern Illinois University
14-18, 6-12MVC
Missouri State University
10-22, 7-11MVC
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final F |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southern Illinois | 23 | 20 | 25 | 22 | 1 |
| Missouri State | 25 | 25 | 18 | 25 | 3 |
Salukis suffer 3-1 setback to Bears to conclude 2019 season
11/22/2019 | 8:46:00 | Women's Volleyball
Alayna Martin records her third career triple-double in her final match as a Saluki.
The Southern Illinois University volleyball team fell in four sets at Missouri State (23-25, 20-25, 25-18, 22-25) Friday night inside the Hammons Student Center.
The Salukis (14-18, 6-12 MVC) nearly sent the match to a fifth set after dropping the first two sets. Southern won the third set, 25-18, and held an 18-16 lead in the fourth set. The Bears, however, had other plans, as they broke a 20-all tie with a 5-2 spurt to seal the 3-1 win.
Southern was led by it seniors, Alayna Martin and Laura Rojas. Martin notched her third career triple-double, as she hit .321 with 10 kills, 20 assists, 14 digs and four blocks in her final match as a Saluki. Rojas, meanwhile, tallied a match-high 17 digs and tied her career-high with three aces. The senior libero's 564 digs on the season are the third-most in a single-season in program history and the most by a Saluki since 2012.
Rachel Maguire nearly notched her 14th triple-double of the season, as the junior setter finished a dig shy of the mark. She finished with 11 kills, 22 assists and nine digs. With her first kill of the match, the Bloomington, Ill. native became the first player in program history to record 300 kills/500 assists/300 digs in a single-season.
Southern had four hitters put down double-digit kills. Lindsey Paulsen (10) and Savannah Sheridan (12) joined Martin and Maguire in double figures.Â
The Salukis fell behind by five early in set one, 9-4, and trailed by as many as seven (14-7). Southern cut the lead down to two, 14-12 with a 5-0 run and later used a 6-0 spurt to get to within one, 21-20. That was as close as SIU could get though, as Missouri State held on to win the opening frame, 25-23.Â
SIU used a 4-1 spurt to break a 6-all tie and take its largest lead of set two at 10-7. Missouri State scored 10 of the next 12 points to build a lead it never relinquished. It was Southern's turn to run away from the Bears in set three, as SIU broke open the frame with a 6-1 run that turned a 7-all tie into a 13-8 advantage. Missouri State never got closer than within five and SIU eventually won the set, 25-18.
In a fourth set that featured eight ties and three lead changes, Missouri State had the last word. Southern led by as many as four and led by two, 18-16, late in the frame, but it was the Bears who broke a 20-all tie with five of the final seven points to take the set and the match.
The Salukis conclude the 2019 campaign with a 14-18 record and a 6-12 record in MVC play. Southern broke the school record for total digs and five-set matches played, while Maguire etched her name in the record books as SIU's all-time leader in both triple-doubles in a season and a career. SIU won nine more matches than it did in 2018 despite battling through injury after injury, with 11 of the 16 players on SIU's roster suffering an injury at least once during the 2019 season. The +9 win improvement is the fourth-best turnaround in school history and currently ranks in the top-10 nationally for win improvement.
