Megan Stephenson punctuated one of her best all-around games in her Illinois State career with a career-high 17 kills, and
Staci Boyce added a season-best 12 to lead Illinois State past Drake 25-30, 32-30, 30-21 in Missouri Valley Conference volleyball Saturday at the Drake Knapp Center.
The Redbirds, 5-4 overall, 1-1 in the Valley out-hit the Bulldogs .262 to .216 as Boyce hit .526 and
Jenny Kabbes hit .423 with 13 kills.
Abby Lewis led ISU with 15 digs
Drake fell to 2-8, 0-4 despite 17 kills and 20 digs from Lacey Corcoran. Briana Kemna had 14 kills and 4 service aces for Drake.
Stephenson, who did most of her damage hitting on the left side, said she could see the openings in the Drake defense and got help from ISUs middle blockers pulling the Bulldog blockers away from her side.
I was able to see through their block, said Stephenson. Our middles did a great job of taking their blockers with them. Their defense looked for our middles and that gave me opportunities.
Redbird coach
Sharon Dingman thought Stephenson and Boyce brought energy to a tired team, which nonetheless beat Drake for the 11th straight time and the 33rd in 38 meetings.
We were just a tired team tonight overall, but Megan and Staci gave us a major lift, said Dingman, whose team came close to falling behind two games to none before dominating the final two games. We knew Drake would come out and serve us aggressively. It took our block some time to adjust to their attack.
To Boyce, who had a career-high six blocks, energy is part of her game.
My goals always include bringing energy to the court, said Boyce. We play better as a team if were happy and exited. After the second game, we knew we hadnt played the way we can. We had to get back to playing Illinois State volleyball the last two games and I think we did.
Boyce made her first start since the opening match of the season and had six kills in seven attempts in game one, but Drake had more offense of its own, especially early and late. The Birds never led until back-to-back shots by Kabbes,
Megan O'Connell and a
Becky Weber tip gave ISU a 21-19 advantage. The Bulldogs bounced right back with the help of back-to-back Lauren Halt service aces to a 28-23 advantage.
Drake led 7-4 in game two before Stephenson gave the Birds a spark. She pounded a kill off the block and then went to the service line and nailed the Bulldogs with five more points to put ISU ahead 10-7. Stephenson had a pair of diving digs during that service stand. But Drake hung around and put together an 8-3 run to take a 28-26 lead. A Kabbes kill and a Lewis service point tied it and the teams battled until, with Drake leading 30-29, Weber scored with a tip, Boyce with a kill and finally OConnell on a kill after Stephenson dug the ball off a block in front of the ISU bench.
Stephenson cranked up five more kills in game three. Weber served the first three points of the game and never trailed, finishing with
Jonna Burchetts three service points, topped by an ace.
