Southern Illinois University
Missouri State University
Game Notes: Volleyball at Missouri State
02/01/2021 | 1:11:00 | Women's Volleyball
The Southern Illinois University volleyball team heads to Springfield, Mo. to take on the Missouri State Bears on Tuesday, Feb. 2 at 3 p.m. The Salukis dropped a five-set heartbreaker to the Bears on Saturday in the first match of the home-and-home Missouri Valley Conference series.Â
All-time vs. Missouri State
• Missouri State leads the all-time series with the Salukis, 58-21.Â
• Southern snapped a five-match losing streak to Missouri State with a 3-2 win on Oct. 21. The Bears evened up the season series with a 3-1 win over a depleted Saluki squad to close out the 2019 season.
• 15 of Southern's 21 wins in the series have come on its home court.
• SIU's last win at Missouri State came on Sept. 26, 2016- a 3-2 come from behind win.
• Five of Southern's seven wins in Springfield have come in five-sets.
• SIU's last four wins in Springfield dating back to 1998 have come in five sets.
Coaching Connection
• Steve McRoberts was named the Missouri State head coach prior to the 2020-21 season.Â
• Prior to the 2011 season, Allen left Tulsa to take over the Alabama Crimson Tide. McRoberts inherited Allen's Tulsa squad that went 31-3, which included a perfect 20-0 in Conference USA play and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2010. The following season under McRoberts, the Hurricanes won 28 matches and again advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
• McRoberts followed Allen to the SEC in 2014 when he took over at Ole Miss. After Allen was named SIU's head coach in 2018, McRoberts joined Allen in the MVC after he was named the head coach at Missouri State.
• Allen's 662 career wins are the 12th-most among active NCAA DI head coaches.
• McRoberts holds a 9-1 all-time record against Allen's DI teams.
Five Setters
• Southern fell in five sets to Missouri State in its conference opener on Jan. 30.
• It marked the second five-set match in its first three matches for the Salukis, who last season set the school record for most five set matches played in (13).
• SIU went 8-5 in 2019 in five set matches.
Nationally ranked in digs per set
- The Salukis, who finished 15th in the nation in 2019 in digs per set (17.67/set), are once again ranked in the top-25 in the category.Â
- Southern currently ranks 23rd at 17.93 digs per set.
Kluge's career-night
- Katy Kluge set career-highs in both digs (34) and assists (8) in SIU's five-set loss to Missouri State on Jan. 30.Â
- Kluge's 34 digs were the most by a Saluki since 2012 and are tied for the most in a five-set match in school history. Overall, it is tied for the third-most in a match of any length in program history.
- It marks just the 16th time in program history that a Saluki has tallied 30-plus digs in a single match.
- Kluge currently leads the Valley, and ranks 19th nationally, in digs per set at 5.50/set.Â
Playing beyond her years
- Imani Hartfield hit a career-best .583 with eight kills on 12 swings against Missouri State on Jan. 30.Â
- The Sanford, Fla. native has put down at least six kills in each of her first three collegiate matches and has just four errors on 57 swings this season.
- Hartfield currently leads all Valley freshmen, and ranks 15th nationally among first-years, with a .386 hitting percentage.Â
- Hartfield's .386 hitting percentage currently ranks second in the Valley.
50-plus assistsÂ
- Rachel Maguire dished out a career-high 50 assists to go along with 11 digs in SIU's win over Memphis on Jan. 23.Â
- Maguire's 50 assists are the most in the MVC this season, and it is the most by a Saluki since Meg Viggars dished out 52 helpers at Indiana State on Nov. 14, 2015.
- With her 48 assists against the Bears on Saturday, Maguire sits just five assists shy of passing Teri Schultehenrich for 16th on SIU's all-time career assists list.
- Maguire leads the Valley in assists per set at 9.83.
New Faces
- The Salukis added nine newcomers for the 2020-21 season, of which five have already made their debuts.
- Ryan Rednour, Imani Hartfield, Tatum Tornatta, MacKenzie Houser and Taylor Morgan have all made their collegiate debuts.
- Houser has recorded double-digit digs in two of SIU's three matches this season, which included a career-high 18 in its win over Memphis on Jan. 23.
- Tornatta has put down double-digit kills in back-to-back matches for the first time in her young career. The freshman out of Evansville, Ind. finished with 11 kills against Missouri State on Saturday.Â
- Rednour has appeared in all three matches this season, primarily as a serving specialist, while Taylor Morgan put down her first collegiate kill against Missouri State on Saturday.
