Erin Jones continued her hot hitting with 15 kills to lead Illinois State past Wichita State 30-24, 30-19, 30-15 in Missouri Valley Conference volleyball Saturday at Redbird Arena.
Erin Jones stepped up and did a great job for us tonight, said head coach Sharon Dingman. She does a great job of studying and remembering scouting reports and it really paid off for her tonight. We want to show ourselves and the rest of the Valley that we are ready for a conference run.
The Redbirds, 9-6 overall, 5-3 in the Valley, out-hit the Shockers .308 to .078 for the match. Megan OConnell had 10 kills for Illinois State, while Abby Lewis contributed 14 digs, while Jones added 10 of her own. ISU had a 56-44 dig edge and an 8-6 blocking edge.
Wichita State, 5-11 overall, 1-8 in the Valley, was led by Kiley Randolph who had 10 kills in 17 attempts. The Shockers had eight service aces in the match to the Redbirds seven. Sara Younes and Nicole May each had eight kills, while Jackie Brown recorded 12 digs.
With game one tied at 7-7, Erin Jones put herself on the service line with a kill and served three more points to start a 7-1 Redbird run to a 14-8 lead. WSU hung in and closed to within a point at 20-19 and three more times, but ISU held them off to claim the first game of the match, 30-24. Jones led the Redbirds with five kills in the game.
In the second game, the Redbirds used a 5-0 run to build a 12-7 lead on the Shockers early. Illinois State never relinquished the lead and cruised to a 30-19 victory to take a 2-0 advantage over Wichita State in the match. Jones added seven more kills to her hot hitting, including a pair from freshman setter Kelly Rikli, who took over for Becky Weber with the Birds leading 20-13.
Dingman liked what she saw in Rikli.
I think you saw a little of the future of Redbird volleyball and shes pretty darn good, said Dingman.
What impressed me most about Illinois State was their win (against Southwest Missouri State) last night, said Wichita State head coach Chris Lamb. That was huge. It showed Illinois State was not going to give up their status as one of the elite teams in the conference.
The Redbirds play a non-conference match Tuesday at DePaul before returning to league play at home against Drake on Friday and Creighton on Saturday.
