Southern Illinois University
12-4,4-1MVC
Missouri State
8-9,2-3MVC
Two Salukis Surpass Career Milestone in Four-Set Win
10/04/2023 | 10:22:00 | Women's Volleyball
Carbondale, Ill. - Southern Illinois continued its winning ways Monday evening as they traveled to Springfield for a weekday match with Missouri State. The Salukis took down the Bears in four-sets (21-25, 26-24, 25-22, 25-16) for their third-straight four-set win in the Valley.
Seniors Nataly Garcia and Tatum Tornatta each surpassed the 1000-career kill mark in the win becoming the 26th and 27th Salukis to hit the milestone. Garcia entered the match with 999 kills and quickly got her 1000th kill on the first point of the match.Â
Tornatta entered with 994 and after getting off to a slow start put down four consecutive kills in a pivotal fourth set to send the Bears to a timeout as Tornatta became the second Saluki of the night to earn a career milestone.
Nataly Garcia (20), Annabelle Sulish (19), and Imani Hartfield (11) led the Salukis in kills as all three recorded new season-highs. Through five conference matches, Garcia and Sulish are both averaging roughly four kills a set and rank in the top-six of the Valley.Â
Freshman setter Ema Stermenksa recorded a match-high 33 assists while also recording a new career-high as a Saluki. The newcomer has also found a lot of success at the service line with 32 aces on the year, averaging 0.52 per set, both of which lead the Missouri Valley.Â
Defensively, the Salukis were solid all night led by sophomore Cecilia Bulmahn who finished with a career-high 24 digs with no errors. Imani Hartfield and Anna Jaworski both came away with nine digs each as the pair neared a double-double. Nine is the most digs in a match for Hartfield's collegiate career.
The Salukis return to Davies Gym for a pair of games this Friday and Saturday against Murray State and Belmont. SIU and Murray will begin at 6pm on Friday night, followed by a 5pm first serve on Saturday with the Bruins.Â
Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Salukis by following the team on Twitter at @SIU_Volleyball, on Instagram at @SIU_Volleyball and on Facebook at Facebook.com/SalukiVolleyball. Fans can also download the "Salukis" Mobile App on the App Store or Google Play Store.Â
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