TERRE HAUTE, IND. - The Indiana State Sycamores could not get their offense going Saturday night as the 14th ranked Northern Iowa Panthers posted their 44th straight Missouri Valley Conference victory with a 3-0 (25-11, 25-11, 25-17) defeat of Indiana State in the ISU Arena.
The Sycamore hitters struggled to knock down shots throughout the night against the Panther defense with sophomore Monique Morris leading the way with eight kills and junior Morgan Dall recording just seven well below her average. Sophomore Loni Mackinson had 20 assists and had nine digs along with senior Kiya James.
Indiana State recorded the first point of the night but the Panthers answered with eight straight to take an 8-1 lead in the opening set. Northern Iowa kept pulling away as the Sycamores could score back-to-back points only once and took the first set 25-11.
The Sycamores tried to come back early in the second set after being down 5-0 but still had trouble putting together consecutive points and eventually dropped a 25-11 decision.
ISU began to loosen up in the third set and had more kills (11) than the first two sets combined (10) but still trailed 7-1 early in the set. The Sycamores fought back to within three at 13-10 on a Dall kill. Northern Iowa regained the momentum with four straight points but the Sycamores did not back down and kept fight backing before eventually dropping the set 25-17.
Indiana State fell to 9-6 overall and 1-3 in the Valley with the setback and will look to regain their winning form next weekend when the visit Drake on Friday and Creighton Saturday. Northern Iowa improved to 14-1 overall and 4-0 in the Missouri Valley Conference.
