KEVIN JENISON

GoSycamores.com

OMAHA, NEB. ? For only the second time this season, the Indiana State Sycamores lost a game while leading in kills as the Creighton Bluejays swept ISU 3-0 (25-21, 25-16, 25-18) in a Missouri Valley Conference contest Friday. It was also just the third time this season that ISU lost when leading in digs.

Indiana State falls to 9-16 overall and 1-11 in the conference with the loss. The Sycamores will continue their road trip at Drake (20-7, 5-7 MVC) Saturday night. Creighton (14-8, 9-3 MVC) will host Illinois State (14-11, 4-8 MVC) on Saturday. The Redbirds rallied from an 0-2 deficit at Drake to defeat the Bulldogs 3-2 (19-25, 24-26, 25-23, 25-18, 15-9) Friday in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Sycamores had 34 kills in the game to 32 for the Bluejays and ISU had 50 digs in the game to 41 for the Bluejays. Indiana State had won nine of the 10 games they led in kills this season and eight of the 10 games in which they led in digs.

Errors plagued Indiana State in the contest and proved to be costly in their efforts to win at Creighton for the first time since 2004. ISU had nine receiving errors and nine service errors to go along with 24 attack errors which hindered the Indiana State effort. Creighton had just three receiving errors, seven service errors, and eight attack errors in the game..

Sophomore Morgan Dall recorded her 12th double-double of the season with 11 kills and 12 digs. Senior Ana Maira Charun had seven kills with sophomore Shea Doran adding six. Junior Shelbi Fouty had 30 assists with freshman Monique Morris recording 14 digs and junior Kiya James 13.

The Sycamores dropped the opening set 21-25 but not before creating some drama as Indiana State denied the Bluejays set point twice on back-to-back kills by Dall. ISU trailed 4-0 early in the set and fought back from deficits as big as seven several times but could never get back to even with Creighton.

Indiana State was able to capitalize on their first set efforts early in the second set, scoring the first four points on two Creighton errors and kills by sophomore Auriel Armstrong and Fouty. Armstrong's second kill of the set put ISU on top 5-1 but the Sycamores could not hold the advantage. The set was tied at seven and again at eight before the Bluejays took the lead for good at 9-8. ISU stayed close until a 7-1 Creighton run pushed the Bluejays up 22-14. Creighton went on to win the second set 25-16.

The third set was tied at one early but then Creighton moved out to a 10-4 lead. After an Indiana State timeout, the Sycamores came back to score five straight points to cut the deficit to 10-9. The Bluejays were able to stop the ISU rally and used an 8-3 run late in the second to defeat ISU 25-18 and win the game in straight sets.

NOTES: Sophomore Morgan Dall (Aviston, Ill.) needs just 24 kills to break into the top 10 of single season kills for Indiana State. Dall has 366 kills this season with Julie Meshberger currently 10th with 389 kills during the 1984 campaign ... Dall moved into ninth on the single season total attack list with 1,114 attempts this season, moving past Cheryl Berg who had 1,111 during the 2001 season ... Junior Kiya James (Indianapolis, Ind.) now has 1,078 career digs which ranks her fifth on the ISU All-Time list and just behind Stacy Stanton who had 1,091 from 1991-1994