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Salukis fall to Missouri State in five sets

By Geary Deniston, For The Southern

Saturday, October 11, 2008 12:19 AM CDT

CARBONDALE - The Southern Illinois University volleyball team fell behind early in the fifth set and didn't have enough left in its tank to beat Missouri Valley Conference rival Missouri State. The Salukis lost 25-17, 23-25, 25-13, 15-25, 15-9 at Davies Gym on Friday night.

"This was a really big win because this is, by far, one of the toughest places to play on the road," Missouri State coach Melissa Stokes said. "To me this was a real pivotal match for either team to put themselves in the driver's seat to be in either the top half (of the conference) or the bottom half."

The Salukis fell to 2-4 in the conference, 11-5 overall, while the Bears upped their conference mark to 4-2 and 12-6 overall. SIU finishes homecoming weekend with a 7 p.m. match today against Wichita State.

"Missouri State is a great team and we went five tonight with them," SIU coach Brenda Winkeler said. "They played very well, so hopefully we can gain confidence in knowing we can play with the top of the league."

MSU broke open a tight first set, outscoring SIU 12-5 at the end to go up 1-0. After hitting .250 in the first set, SIU cooled off to .143 in the second, but still managed to tie the match. The Bears were even colder, managing only a .125 hitting percentage.

Sophomore Jennifer Berwanger and junior Chandra Roberson were key for the Salukis as they combined for five of the seven kills during the second set.

MSU jumped out to a 22-7 lead in the third set and withstood a mini-comeback by the Salukis to take a 2-1 lead. The Bears regained their hitting touch with a .367 percentage while the Salukis cooled off even more, dropping to .031.

"We talked about getting out to a quick start," Stokes said. "We also told them to play one ball at a time and be patient. If you lose the ball you have to have a first-ball kill on the next sideout."

SIU felt behind early in the fourth set, but took the lead for good, 7-6, on a Kelsie Laughlin smash and won going away to force a final set. The Salukis improved their shooting to .394 with Laughlin and Jennifer Berwanger leading with way with five and four kills, respectively.

MSU led the final set 8-3 before SIU began to battle back, pulling to within three points, 12-9. But three straight kills by Addie Foley, who finished the match with 19 kills, sealed the win for the Bears. MSU had its best shooting percentage of the match in the fifth set at .471 while SIU cooled off once again at .190.

"We had a great fourth set and played hard, but when it came down to that last set we made more errors than they did," Winkeler said.