KEVIN JENISON
GoSycamores.com
PEORIA, ILL. ? The Sycamore volleyball team kept coming back but couldn't pull out the victory, falling in five sets to the home standing Bradley Braves 2-3 (19-25, 25-14, 19-25, 25-23, 9-15) Saturday in a Missouri Valley Conference contest.
Indiana State falls to 11-19 overall and 3-14 in the MVC with the loss. The Sycamores will close out the 2010 season next Friday night when they visit Illinois State in an 8 p.m. (ET) game. Bradley won their final two home games of the season, much like the Sycamores did a week ago, as they improved to 8-21 overall and 3-13 in the Valley. The Braves close out their season at Missouri State Friday and at Wichita State Saturday.
Sophomore Morgan Dall led the ISU attack Saturday night with 19 kills while senior Ana Maira Charun had 13 kills, and junior Stacy Qualizza had 10. Junior Shelbi Fouty had 52 assists with junior Kiya James recording 21 digs. Qualizza also had a career high seven blocks on the night.
The opening set was tied nine times with a pair of lead changes. The Sycamores held the advantage through the early going but a 4-0 Bradley run broke a 9-all tie and gave the Braves a 13-9 that they would not relinquish. ISU rallied to knot the score at 13 but another 3-0 run by Bradley put the Braves back in control. The Braves went on to take the opening set 25-19.
The tide turned in the second set as the Sycamores took the advantage early and never looked back. Indiana State, backed by a pair of Charun kills, used a 4-0 run to break a 5-all tie and take command at 9-5. The Braves would not get any closer than three the rest of the way with ISU controlling the action to take a 25-14 victory and evening the game at one-set each at the intermission.
The see-saw battle continued after the intermission with the Braves assuming control early in the third set and holding off a later ISU rally to post a 25-19 win. The Sycamores were down by six before kills by Qualizza, Charun, and Dall along with a block by sophomore Auriel Armstrong broke ISU back to within two at 19-17. The Braves stopped the ISU rally and outscored Indiana State 6-2 the rest of the set to take the win.
As it was in the second set, so it was in the fourth set. Indiana State took control early in the early and built a 17-10 advantage midway through the set. However, Bradley was able to put together a rally that nearly carried them to the victory, cutting the ISU lead to one at 24-23. The Sycamores were able to survive on a kill by Dall off a Fouty set to force a fifth set with a 25-23 win.
Indiana State was never able to get in front in the final set as Bradley jumped out to a 4-1 lead and never looked back. The Braves built an 11-3 lead before the Sycamores staged a rally to trail 12-7 on a block by Fouty and Qualizza. Unfortunately, Bradley was able to hold off the Sycamores and went on to take the fifth set 15-9 and win the game three sets to two.
The Sycamores had 57 kills in 165 attacks with 21 errors for a .218 hitting percentage while Bradley had 60 kills in 162 attacks with 23 errors for a .228 hitting percentage. Both teams had 54 assists in the contest with ISU getting 70 digs and Bradley 75. The Sycamores also had 10 team blocks to six for Bradley.
