TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Indiana State Volleyball team wraps up the month of October at Illinois State on Friday in Normal, Ill. Match time on Halloween is set for 8 p.m. ET in Redbird Arena. Live video (pay) and live stats are available from GoRedbirds.com.
Indiana State Sycamores
Head Coach: Traci Dahl-Skinner
Career Record: 72-134 (7th Season)
Record at ISU: Same
2014 Record: 15-8
2014 MVC Record: 7-4
2014 Stat Leaders
Kills - 315, Bree Spangler
Hitting Percentage - .369, Cassandra Willis
Digs - 282, Stephanie Bindernagel
Assists - 906, Erika Nord
Points - 342.5, Bree Spangler
Blocks - 67, Cassandra Willis
Aces - 31, Stephanie Bindernagel
Illinois State Redbirds
Head Coach: Melissa Myers
At Illinois State: 119-90 (7th Season)
Career Record: 280-139 (13th Season)
2014 Record: 17-5
2014 MVC Record: 11-0
Last Time Out: W, 3-1 vs. Southern Illinois, W, 3-0 vs. Evansville
Series Histories
vs. Illinois State: Indiana State trails, 8-51
Previously With…
Indiana State and Illinois State met on Oct. 3 in Terre Haute as the visitors walked away with a 3-0 victory. The Sycamores played a close three set match with the league leading Redbirds (24-26, 25-27, 19-25) as Bree Spangler and Kynedi Nalls each turned in 10 kills helping their team to a .257 hitting percentage.
Scouting the Redbirds
Illinois State has continued on a tear through conference play, staying undefeated through 11 games including wins at Evansville and Southern Illinois last weekend. Ashley Rosch leads the Redbirds with 293 kills while Jaelyn Keene posts a .332 hitting percentage to lead the league-leading Redbird attacking. Libero Emily Orrick holds a team-high 448 digs while setter Kaitlyn Early has dished out 904 assists on the season.
News and Notes
The Sycamores split a pair of weekend matches on the road at Southern Illinois and Evansville. The Salukis avenged an earlier loss to Indiana State, 3-1, on Friday in Carbondale. ISU turned around on Saturday to defeat the Purple Aces, 3-0.
Sophomore outside hitter Bree Spangler posted her ninth and 10th double-doubles of the season in a weekend split on the road at Southern Illinois and Evansville. She led the team in digs and kills in both matches, including a team-high 16 kills and 17 digs at Southern Illinois. She posted a .300 hitting percentage in Saturday's win over Evansville with 14 kills on just two attack errors.
Indiana State's seven Missouri Valley Conference wins ties for its most league wins under head coach Traci Dahl-Skinner. The Sycamores also posted seven wins in Dahl-Skinner's second season in 2009. ISU needs just two more conference wins to tie its best league mark as it posted nine wins in 1994 and 2003.
Indiana State's 3-0 victory at Evansville on Saturday night marked its first conference series sweep of the season. In addition, it also recorded its second-straight series sweep of the Purple Aces and tacked on a four-game match win streak over its in-state conference foe.
As a team, the Sycamores are ranked in the top of a variety of MVC stats as they lead in service aces (135, 1.55 per set), second in assists (1093, 12.56 per set) and kills (1168, 13.43 per set), third in hitting percentage (.233) and opponent hitting percentage (.194) and fifth in digs (1314, 15.10 per set).
Individually, Willis (.369) and senior middle blocker Kyla Thomas (.333) rank third and fifth, respectively, in hitting percentage. Junior setter Erika Nord is third in assists (10.92 per set) while freshman libero Stephanie Bindernagel leads in service aces (31, 0.36 per set) set) while sophomore defensive specialist Shannon Murphy is also third (27, 0.31 per set). Sophomore outside hitter Bree Spangler ranks fourth in kills (3.62 per set) and fifth in total points (342.5, 3.94 per set).
Freshman outside hitter Sarah Peterson continued to come in key off the bench for Indiana State last weekend on the road. The freshman outside hitter combined for 17 kills (2.43 per set) and seven digs as Indiana State improved to 7-4 in MVC play. Against Southern Illinois, the Seven Hills, Ohio native recorded seven kills and five digs. She turned around against Evansville the next night to throw down 10 kills on a .300 hitting percentage (10-4-20) to go along with two kills.
Freshman libero Danielle Waedekin contributed another solid weekend in the back row for Indiana State as she posted 19 digs (2.71 per set) to go along with seven assists. Waedekin added eight kills in Friday night's loss to Southern Illinois. She also chipped in 11 digs in Saturday's win at Evansville to help Indiana State improve to 7-4 overall in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Indiana State returns home to host Loyola and Bradley at ISU Arena on Nov. 7-8. Match times are both set for 7 p.m. ET.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Volleyball team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
