Indiana State hopes to rebound
Saturday with road trip to Evansville
KEVIN JENISON
GoSycamores.com
CARBONDALE, ILL. ? Indiana State junior setter Shelbi Fouty had a career high 57 assists, the third game in the last six that she has surpassed the 50 assist mark, but it wasn't enough as the Indiana State volleyball team could not fend off a rally by the Southern Illinois Salukis and lost 3-2 (25-23, 30-28, 15-25, 21-25, 9-15) in a Missouri Valley Conference contest Friday.
The loss drops the Sycamores to 8-11 on the season and 0-6 in the Valley while Southern Illinois improves to 11-5 overall and 2-4 in the Valley. Indiana State will look to put the loss behind them and pick up their first MVC win of the season on Saturday when they visit the Evansville Purple Aces in an 8 p.m. (ET) start. The Purple Aces (15-3, 4-2 MVC) swept Illinois State 3-0 (25-22, 25-20, 25-23) Friday in Evansville.
The Sycamores put forth a great team effort as they attempted to secure their first Valley win of the season and stop a five game losing streak. Sophomore Morgan Dall led the offense with 15 kills while junior Stacy Qualizza and senior Ana Maira Charun had 14 each.
Fouty, Charun, and Dall each had a double-double on the night with Fouty recording 16 digs to go along with her career high 57 assists. Charun added a career high 21 digs to go along with her 14 kills and Dall had a career high 18 digs to go along with her 15 kills. It was Dall's 10th double-double of the season and the third this year for Fouty.
Freshman Monique Morris also had a career high 20 digs as the Sycamores recorded 96 as a team Friday night. She came close to her first career double-double as she posted nine kills which was a career high for the freshman.
Indiana State never trailed in the opening set but had to fight off a late rally by SIU to pick up the 25-23 win on a kill by Fouty and a Saluki error. The second set was tied 15 times with six lead changes. ISU was set to pick up the victory after kills by Morris and Qualizza gave the Sycamores at 24-23 advantage. However, ISU missed five chances to win the set as they would take the lead only to have SIU tie the set up on the next point. The Sycamores were finally able to put together two straight points on kills by Qualizza and Morris to win the set 30-28 and take a 2-0 lead in to the intermission.
Southern Illinois took control early in the third set and never looked back as the Salukis cruised to a 25-15 win. ISU played better in the fourth set and were tied at 14 after a kill by Dall midway through the set. SIU ran off five straight points after that and held on to even the game at two-sets each with a 25-21 win.
The deciding set was close through the early stages with Indiana State on top 8-7 after a Dall kill. However, the Sycamores were not able to stymie a Saluki rally which had SIU scoring seven straight points to set up game point at 14-8. A kill by Dall prolonged the game but the Salukis scored the next point to win the set 15-9 and the take the game three sets to two.
Indiana State had 61 kills in 209 attempts with 28 errors for a .158 hitting percentage while the Salukis had 73 kills in 203 attempts with 23 errors for a .246 hitting percentage.
