Kendra Haselhorst had 19 kills and Illinois State scored the first 14 points of the match, but had to rally in the rally game to beat Evansville 15-1, 15-10, 11-15, 6-15, 15-13 in Missouri Valley Conference volleyball Friday at Redbird Arena.
The Redbirds, 6-3, 3-1 in the Valley, continued its string of success against Evansville. ISU has won all 13 matches in the series, but this might have been the toughest. The Aces led 13-10 in the deciding game before a side-out put Abby Lewis, coming off the bench on the service line. Lewis served the final four points, including two kills by Megan Stephenson, who had a career-high 11 kills plus five blocks.
Evansville made this game a nail-biter, head coach Sharon Dingman said. They did a great job of digging us and took us out of our offense in ways that I havent seen. In the end, we were just a little more physical.
ISU got off fast in the deciding game, using Erin Jones two service aces and another by Megan OConnell to take a 7-2 lead. But back-to-back blocks by Kiefer and her own run of five straight service points got UE a 10-8 lead. ISU got to 10-10 on OConnells kill. UE answered with three more points including two on kills by Kiefer, who finished with 20 to go with 20 digs.
Evansville, 8-6, 2-1, got pounded by tough Redbird serves in game one and was unable to run its offense. The Birds pummeled UEs defense for 11 kills in 24 attempts without a hitting error for a .484 percentage.
In game two, Jones picked up three kills during an ISU rally from a 5-3 deficit to take an 8-5 lead, which ISU never relinquished. For the third time in the past two weeks, B Corbin came off the bench to serve out a game, coming on with the score 13-10 and serving an ace and the winning point.
But the Aces got their game going in game three. Better passing got Lady Iya and Kiefer into the offense. Iya had eight kills and Kiefer had six. Haselhorst had nine for the Birds, one more than her teammates total for the game.
They came back and played their game and we didnt really execute, said setter Becky Weber. Our serving and blocking was weak, but we turned it around in the end.
Iyas three blocks gave the Aces an emotional lift during an 8-0 run to a 10-4 lead in game four. UE forced a rally game for the fourth time in its 14 matches this season.
In game five, after exchanging multiple sideouts, Jones then served two straight aces for points six and seven. With UE up 13-10, Stephenson smacked two kills in-a-row, bringing the score to 13-12 and forcing an Evansville timeout.
Our team maintained their composure on the court and showed a great deal of confidence in each other, Dingman said. We were determined and didnt want to lose at home.
