TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - The Indiana State volleyball team moved to 2-0 on the young season with their second sweep of the day, defeating the Eastern Illinois Panthers 3-0 (25-10, 25-14, 25-14) in the final game of the day in the Quality Inn/ACISC Classic being played in the ISU Arena.
"This was a great start for us," Traci Dahl, Indiana State volleyball coach, said. "But we still have a lot of work to do."
Junior Morgan Dall knocked down 14 kills in 27 attempts to pace the Sycamores to the victory while senior Stacy Qualizza had 12 kills in 16 attempts. Senior Shelby Fouty had 33 assists while senior Kiya James had 20 digs. Junior Shea Doran had seven kills and four blocks for ISU.
The Sycamores were never threatened by the Panthers as ISU jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the opening set and cruised to a 25-10 victory. The Indiana State momentum kept going in the second set as ISU rolled to a 14-3 lead midway through the set before taking the 25-14 win. The third set stayed close until midway through when ISU used an 11-3 run to pull away and cruise to the 25-14 victory.
Indiana State opened tournament action with a 3-0 (25-17, 25-10, 25-9) win over Chicago State. The Sycamores will meet Miami (Ohio) at noon on Saturday and round out tournament action against Coppin State at 7 p.m. All games are in the ISU Arena.
Miami (Ohio) opened tournament action with a 3-0 win over Coppin State followed by Indiana State topping Chicago State 3-0, Miami (Ohio) holding off Eastern Illinois 3-1, Coppin State outlasting Chicago State 3-2, and Indiana State wrapping up the day with their 3-0 win over Eastern Illinois.
Action resumes at 9:30 a.m. Saturday with Eastern Illinois (0-2) going up against Chicago State (0-2). The battle of the unbeaten teams will be played at noon as the 2-0 Sycamores meet the 2-0 RedHawk of Miami (Ohio). Eastern Illinois and Coppin State (1-1) meet at 2:30 p.m. with Chicago State and Miami (Ohio) at 5 p.m. and the tournament wrapping up with ISU squaring off against Coppin State at 7 p.m.
Individual and team trophies will be presented at the conclusion of the 7 p.m. match with members of the Jessica Barkman family present to present the hardware. This year's tournament is in memory of Barkman who played at Indiana State from 1991-1994 and was killed in an automobile accident in 1997. Starting with the 2012 season, the opening home tournament for the Sycamores will be named the Jessica Barkman Classic.
