Despite 11 kills by Megan OConnell and Kendra Haselhorst, Illinois State fell to Northern Iowa 15-6, 15-5, 15-7 in Missouri Valley Conference volleyball Friday at Redbird Arena.
The streaking Panthers, 25-4, 15-0 in the Missouri Valley, have won 20 straight overall, 56 straight in the Valley and have clinched their third straight outright regular-season championship. Illinois State fell to 17-9 overall, 14-2 in the Valley. The Panthers will be the No. 1 seed and the Redbirds the No. 2 seed in next weeks six-team State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Tournament at Terre Haute.
Haselhorst was disappointed with her teams inconsistency.
It was up and down all night, Haselhorst said. We could never get in a solid groove where we could get more than three or four points at a time.
Panther setter Jill Arganbright set a balanced attack which hit .271 for the match led by Kim McCaffrey with 12 kills and Alexandra Auker with 8 kills.
When the No. 1 and No. 2 teams play each other, anything can happen, Northern Iowa coach Iradge Ahrabi-Fard said. The first seven points of the game showed how focused each of the teams were. We have a lot of weapons and we used all of our weapons.
ISU stayed close in the early going and OConnells kill closed the gap to 7-6 in game one, but that was all for the Birds. Northern Iowa scored the last eight points while holding Illinois State scoreless on its last seven service attempts.
The Redbird struggles continued as UNI rolled up a 9-1 lead in game two as the Panthers out-hit the Redbirds .353 to .028. UNI scored on all of its five game-two blocks.
UNI led 3-1 in game three when OConnell served an ace and another point and B Corbin started off a four-point service stand with an ace to put ISU ahead 7-3. But Miranda Weber had the answer, as UNI did all night, serving five straight service points and the Panthers were on their way to their eighth straight win over Illinois State. Northern Iowa scored the final 12 points of the game to overcome the ISU lead and take the match 15-7.
The Panthers out-hit the Birds .271 to .047 for the match and out-blocked Illinois State 12 to four.
Every loss is disappointing, Illinois State coach Sharon Dingman said. I dont think we should put any more into the loss against Northern Iowa than we did against SMS. Northern just took off when they needed to. I think the blocking was the biggest difference. We didnt block with them and they havent lost a game where theyve out-blocked their opponents.
Illinois State meets Bradley at 7 p.m. Saturday (Nov. 18) in its final home match of the season.
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