Southern Illinois University
Missouri State University
Bears outlast Salukis in five-set thriller
01/30/2021 | 6:04:00 | Women's Volleyball
CARBONDALE, Ill. — The Southern Illinois University volleyball team suffered a five-set loss (18-25, 25-23, 25-17, 15-25, 12-15) to the Missouri State Bears in its Missouri Valley Conference opener Saturday evening inside Davies Gym.
The Bears broke an 8-all tie in the opening set and never looked back to seal a 25-18 win. The Salukis rebounded to take both the second and third sets. In the two frames, SIU hit a combined .320, which included a .353 hitting percentage in its 25-17 set three win. Southern committed eight attack errors in sets two and three - which was one fewer than it committed in the opening frame.
Missouri State never trailed in its fourth set win, as it raced out to a 5-0 lead and led by as many as 10 to force a decisive fifth set. In a fifth frame that featured seven ties and three lead changes, the Bears were able to claw their way out of a 10-7 hole to eventually win the set, 15-12 and take the match.
"If you look at the sets we won, we sided out at 77- and 65-percent, and the sets that we lost we were barely able to get to 50-percent," second-year head coach Ed Allen said. "It's a pretty simple game- serve and pass. When you look at the first set- we had nine attacking errors. You can't really beat anyone when you commit that many errors. We settled down for the next two sets but we didn't start the fourth set the way we needed to. A young team like we are doesn't have the confidence yet to be able to come back from such large deficits."
In the sets that SIU won, Southern hit above .275 and sided out at least 65-percent of the time. In the sets that Southern lost, the Salukis didn't hit above .200 and sided out less than 50-percent of the time. Southern also committed nine service errors and surrendered seven aces.
"We committed errors to beat ourselves," Allen said. "We need to be a team that commits less unforced errors- I don't see that happening any time soon, but that's where we need to evolve."
Three Salukis finished with double-digit kills, led by Savannah Sheridan's match-high 17. Hannah Becker put down 12 kills to go along with five digs, while Tatum Tornatta added 11 kills. It marked the second time in her last three matches that the Evansville, Ind. native has finished with 10-plus kills. Imani Hartfield hit at a career-best .583 clip and put down eight kills to just one error on 12 swings.
Defensively, Katy Kluge had a career-night in the loss. The junior libero set or tied her career-highs in digs (34), assists (8) and kills (2). Rachel Maguire notched her third-straight assist-dig double-double, as she tallied 48 assists and 22 digs. Alex Washington and MacKenzie Houser each chipped in 11 digs.
The Salukis have a short turnaround, as they travel to Missouri State on Tuesday. First serve is set for 3 p.m.
