Indiana State looks to close out home season
with second straight win Saturday night.
KEVIN JENISON
GoSycamores.com
TERRE HAUTE, IND. ? Junior Stacy Qualizza led a determined Sycamore effort as Indiana State avenged an earlier loss to the Evansville Purple Aces with a thrilling 3-0 (38-36, 25-18, 25-22) victory in a Missouri Valley Conference contest Friday night in the ISU Arena.
The victory was the first over Evansville since 2003 putting an end to a 13 game losing streak to the Purple Aces. The Sycamores, now 10-17 overall and 2-12 in the conference, will seek their second straight win Saturday night when they host the Southern Illinois Salukis (15-9 overall, 4-8 MVC) at 7 p.m. (ET) in the ISU Arena. SIU was swept by Illinois State (16-11, 6-8 MVC) on Friday (27-25, 25-20, 25-17).
Qualizza recorded 26 kills on 44 attempts with a .568 hitting percentage and scored 28 points in the victory, all career highs for the Sycamore junior. The 26 kills is the fourth best in school history, a mark she now shares with Cheryl Berg, Jennifer Dallao, and Julie Kovacs. Tishara Jespersen and Kovacs share the school record with 30 kills in a game. The .568 hitting percentage in the fifth best single game performance in school history.
Not to be outdone was sophomore Morgan Dall who recorded 20 kills in a career high 69 attempts and added 18 digs for her 13th double-double of the season. The 69 attempts ties her with Kylee Osborne for the sixth most in a single game.
Junior Kiya James had a career high 32 digs, which ties her with Cheryl Berg for the eighth best single game performance in school history.
The first set became a matter of survival of the fitness with 19 ties and seven lead changes. The Sycamores had a chance to win the set at 24-22 after a Qualizza kill but Evansville denied ISU the set win and rallied for a 25-24 advantage. Indiana State regained the advantage on kills by Doran and sophomore Shea Doran but couldn't put the Purple Aces away.
Indiana State maintained the advantage with the set tied five more times before the Purple Aces rallied to take a 32-31 lead. The Sycamore denied Evansville set point three five times before regaining the momentum. Dall tied the opening set up for the final time at 36 and then an Evansville error put ISU up 37-36. Qualizza knocked down her 14th kill of the opening set to seal the 38-36 win for ISU.
The Sycamores maintained the advantage throughout the second set although the Purple Aces did rally from a 3-0 deficit to knot the score at four early on. Indiana State later used a 5-0 run to take command at 14-9 and held off the Purple Aces the rest of the set to win 25-18 and take a 2-0 lead into the intermission.
The third set looked like it might be a repeat of the opening set as both teams battled point for point throughout most of the action. After leading 5-1 early, the Sycamores found themselves down by as many as two through the middle portion of the set. Indiana State kept their composure and rallied to tie the set at 22 on a Dall kill. ISU scored the final three points on kills by Doran, sophomore Auriel Armstrong, and the game winner from senior Ana Maira Charun.
The 10 wins by Indiana State is the most for the Sycamores since the 2004 season when ISU posted 12 victories. The Sycamores have not won back-to-back home conference games since that 2004 season when Indiana State topped Drake 3-0 and Creighton 3-1 to close out the home portion of the schedule.
Dall, who is ranked 28th in the nation in kills per set, moved into seventh in the single season kill list with 411 for the season and scored her 400th kill this season in the opening set. She is also currently second on the kills per set list at 4.19 kills per set this season, third in total attacks for the season at 1250, and is currently fourth in points per set for a season at 4.52.
James is currently fifth on the career dig list with 1,128 in her three years as a Sycamore. She also moved into eighth on the single season dig list with 430 so far this season.
Qualizza is currently seventh on the single season hitting percentage list at .292.
Saturday is “Senior Night” for the Indiana State Sycamores with ISU's lone senior, Ana Maira Charun, to be honored in pre-game ceremonies. It is also the final home game of the 2010 season for Indiana State volleyball.
