Indiana State senior Ana Maira Charun goes
out winner in final home court appearance
KEVIN JENISON
GoSycamores.com
TERRE HAUTE, IND. ? Junior Stacy Qualizza and sophomore Morgan Dall each racked up 19 kills as the Indiana State Sycamores closed out the home portion of their 2010 schedule with their second straight win, defeating Southern Illinois 3-2 (25-14, 17-25, 25-21, 18-25, 15-13) in a Missouri Valley Conference game Saturday in the ISU Arena.
For the second straight night, Qualizza was red-hot in the attack, knocking down 19 kills in 31 attempts for a .548 hitting percentage. That is the sixth best single game hitting percentage in school history and comes a night after she recorded the fifth best with a .568 against the Evansville Purple Aces.
Dall got off to a slow start but came on strong in the final two sets to finish with 19 kills, giving her 430 for the season and putting her in sixth on the single-season kill she list. She added 27 digs to record her 14th double-double of the season.
The Salukis dominated the opening set as Indiana State could not get their offense going and had trouble stopping the Southern Illinois attack. SIU broke away midway through the set with a 5-0 run and dominated the second half of the set to post a 25-14 win.
It was Indiana State's turn to dominate in the second set as the Sycamores roared to a 4-0 lead and never looked back, evening up the game at one set each by the intermission with a 25-17 victory.
The third set was a battle throughout with 13 ties and five lead changes. Southern Illinois took a 17-14 lead but the Sycamores were able to rally with a 5-0 run that put ISU on top for good a 19-17. The Salukis rallied to tie the set at 19 and again at 20 but a Dall kill and a service ace from junior Shelbi Fouty pushed ISU up 22-20. Kills by Dall and Qualizza along with a Dall service ace sealed the 25-21 win for the Sycamores.
ISU had hopes of closing out the win in the fourth set, taking a 3-1 lead early on. SIU had other ideas however and rallied to tie the set three times before moving in front for good at 10-9. Indiana State could not regain the momentum as SIU forced a fifth set with a 25-18 victory.
The Sycamores were not able to gain the advantage in the deciding set until late in the action. The teams traded points until the Sycamores were able to put together two straight on a Dall kill and a block by Dall and sophomore Auriel Armstrong that put ISU up 12-11. The set was tied for the final time at 12 before a Dall kill and an SIU error put the Sycamores at game point, 14-12. The Salukis cut the lead to one on a Jessica Whitehead kill but sophomore Shea Doran knocked down the game winner off a Fouty set for a 15-13 ISU win and a 3-2 victory in the game.
Armstrong and Doran both had nine kills in the game while senior Ana Maira Charun knocked down eight in her home finale. Fouty had 59 assists while junior Kiya James led the defense with 25 digs.
The victory was the first over Southern Illinois since 2004 and avenged an earlier five-set loss in Carbondale, Ill., this season. ISU has not put together back-to-back home conference wins or back-to-back conference victories since the 2004 season.
Indiana State (11-17 overall and 3-12 in the MVC) will take their show on the road for the remainder of the season beginning next weekend when they visit #13 Northern Iowa on Friday and then visit Bradley on Saturday. The Sycamores close out their season on Nov. 19 at Illinois State. Southern Illinois falls to 14-10 overall and 5-9 in the Valley.
