KEVIN JENISON

GoSycamores.com

TERRE HAUTE, IND. – Playing their third game in four days, the Indiana State Sycamores fought the visiting Illinois State Redbirds for every point but still dropped their 2010 Missouri Valley Conference opener 3-0 (23-25, 20-25, 19-25) Friday in the ISU Arena in front of 145 fans.

The loss drops the Sycamores to 8-6 overall and 0-1 in the Valley. Indiana State will be on the road next weekend, visiting Missouri State on Friday and Wichita State on Saturday. Illinois State improved to 9-3 on the season and 1-0 in the Valley.

Sophomore Morgan Dall again led the Sycamore offense with 20 kills. Junior Stacy Qualizza and sophomore Auriel Armstrong had six each with sophomore Christie Fullenkamp knocking down five. Junior Shelbi Fouty had 34 assists on the night while junior Kiya James had 10 digs.

Indiana State trailed by as many as five points in the opening set but staged a late rally that cut the deficit to one at 23-24 on a block by sophomore Shea Doran. The rally was ended on a Mallory Leggett kill for Illinois State.

The Sycamores trailed by eight late in the second set before staging another rally that brought ISU back to within four 23-19 on a kill by Fouty. The Redbirds were able to stop the rally and took the second set 25-20.

Indiana State climbed out of another big hole in the third set but could not get back to even with the Redbirds. Illinois State was able to stop several Sycamore rallies in the third set and held on for a 25-19 win and take game 3-0.

After a slow start, the Sycamores finished with a .237 hitting average with 41 kills. Illinois State had 52 kills and a .351 hitting percentage.