Illinois State and Southern Illinois both bring plenty of offense and plenty of reasons use it to Fridays 7 p.m. Missouri Valley Conference volleyball match at Redbird Arena.
Conference kill leader Kristie Kemner (4.78 per game) leads a Southern Illinois attack which hits .246--.001 higher than the SIU season kill percentage record. She is backed by middle blocker Lindsey Schultz (3.80 kills per game), with junior setter Britten Follett quarterbacking the attack.
Illinois State features a trio of ball-blasting front-court players. Senior Jenny Kabbes (3.54 kills per game), senior Erin Jones (3.33) and junior Staci Boyce (3.46) make the Redbirds the only team in the Valley with three players averaging more than 3.00 kills per game. Sophomore setter Kelly Rikli has had no trouble finding her hot hitter lately; the Birds are averaging nearly 19 kills per game during the current winning streak. They also are anxious for the opportunity to balance the scales on their home court--Illinois States 5-4 league record breaks down to 4-0 on the road and 1-4 at home.
The Redbirds, 8-8 overall, have the momentum of a four-match winning streak on their side, including three league wins in succession. SIU is 15-6 overall, 6-3 in the Valley. A Redbird win pulls Illinois State into a tie in conference standings with SIU and also gives the Redbirds the advantage in all tiebreakers with the Salukis--an edge which could impact seeding in Novembers State Farm-Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
SIU has plenty of incentives. With 15 wins and at least nine more matches left, the Salukis could inch closer to their first 20-win season since 1986. But a win on Friday could be significant on three more levels to head coach Sonya Locke and company.
1. Locke, the dean of Valley volleyball coaches, is sitting on 199 wins in her 13-year college coaching career, including 12 sesaons at SIU and one at Kankakee Community College.
2. In Lockes 12 years at SIU, the Salukis are 0-23 against Illinois State.
3. SIU had Illinois State painted into an 8-1 corner in game five of the last shootout between the Birds and the Dawgs (Sept. 21 in Carbondale), but the Redbirds escaped for an 18-16 win in the decisive game.
According to Redbird coach Sharon Dingman, Illinois State knows that Southern Illinois knows all that.
One of the things that came up when we played down there is that our players dont want to be the ones to end the winning streak against Southern. They want to uphold that tradition for Illinois State, said Dingman. Obviously, their players want to end that streak. Her players also probably know that Sonya has 199 career coaching wins and they certainly would remember leading 8-1 in game five against us at Southern.
But all those are just footnotes. The match will likely be decided by the firepower on the court and Dingman believes a Family Night crowd at Redbird Arena should enjoy the kind of offensive play both teams can bring to the court.
This should definitely be a fun match to watch, said Dingman. With Kristie Kemner and Schultz, Southern has some offensive weapons. We have the Big Three with Kabbes, Jones and Staci Boyce doing a great job of killing the ball, and Kelly is getting it to them in one-on-one situations with the blockers.
Dingman appreciates the differences Jones, Boyce and Kabbes bring to the court.
Erin has been jump-starting our offense, said Dingman, referring to Jones high first-game kill totals in recent matches. Staci has shown the ability to finish the match strong. Jenny is the steady one ... she attracts a lot of attention from the defense.
Kabbes, who earned her 1,000th career Illinois State kill last Friday at Drake, had one of the best matches of her career at SIU last month, with a 24-kill, 13-block, 10-dig triple-double in the five-game win over the Salukis. Illinois State comes back to play Evansville at 7 p.m. Saturday while SIU travels to Indiana State.
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FAMILY NIGHT FOR SIU: Two adult tickets, two youth tickets, $2 concession coupon, all for $10 total.
