"I cannot say enough about the effort and determination this team has," Traci Dahl, Indiana State volleyball coach, said. "They want to win. They have worked hard and we have faced a lot of adversity this year. I am so proud of each and every one of them."

The Sycamores (13-13 overall and 5-10 in the MVC) opened their final road trip of the 2011 season with a 3-0 win at Evansville on Friday. The win Saturday is the first time ISU has won back-to-back road Valley games back to back since the 2003 season when Indiana State won at Drake and Creighton near the end of the season. Saturday's win was the first in Carbondale, Ill., since the 2004 season.

Saturday's win also moved Indiana State into a tie for sixth with the Drake Bulldogs in the Missouri Valley Conference with the top six teams being invited to the MVC post-season tournament. Drake was swept by Wichita State Saturday (19-25, 12-25, 13-25) and fell to 9-20 overall and 5-10 in the Valley.

Sophomores Molly Murphy and Monique Morris paced the Sycamore attack with 13 kills each while senior Stacy Qualizza had 11. Freshman Samantha Kersting contributed six, senior Shelbi Fouty five, and junior Shea Doran four. Fouty also had 40 assists in the game, senior Kiya James 27 digs, and Doran a game high five blocks.

The Sycamores never trailed in the opening set as they scored the first six points of the action. Southern Illinois fought back to knot the score at eight and again at nine before a Morris kill and a block by Doran and Kersting put ISU back on top 11-9. Indiana State slowly opened up their lead and had their biggest lead at nine 24-15 after a Fouty ace. The Salukis denied the Sycamores set point four times before ISU was able to close out the 25-20 win.

The second set started out in favor of Southern Illinois as the Salukis scored the first five points. Indiana State fought from behind for most of the opening half of the set and was finally able to draw even at 14-all. The Sycamores had to come back two more times to tie the score at 15 and again at 16 before taking their first lead at 17-16 on a Doran kill.

A Murphy kill and a block by Qualizza and Doran put ISU up 19-17. SIU rallied for a 20-19 lead but could not hold on as ISU fought back again, taking the lead for good on a Qualizza block and a Kiya James service ace to go up 23-21. The Sycamores held on to that two-point advantage and took a two sets to none lead with a 25-23 win.

The momentum in the third set went back and forth with SIU holding the advantage early and ISU rallying to dominate the middle portion. The Sycamores had their biggest lead of the set at 15-12 but could not hang on as SIU scored four straight to retake the lead. The set was tied three more times, the last coming at 20 on a kill by Fouty. The Salukis scored five of the next six points to slow down the Sycamore express and post a 25-21 win.

The final set was all Indiana State after Murphy evened the score at two with a kill and then put ISU on top for good with a service ace. The Sycamores could not pull away until two Kersting kills and a Morris service ace helped pull ISU out to a 9-5 lead. Indiana State kept the pressure on after that and continued to open up their advantage, winning the set 25-13 and taking the game three sets to one.

The Sycamores still have a lot of work to do in the conference but will step out of conference to host the IUPUI Jaguars (14-14) in a non-conference game at 7 p.m. (ET) Tuesday in the ISU Arena. Indiana State closes out the Missouri Valley Conference season by hosting Illinois State (17-10, 9-6 MVC) on Saturday, Missouri State (18-7, 11-3 MVC) on Nov. 18, and then host Wichita State (15-9, 9-5 MVC) for Senior Night on Nov. 19.