With Sara Younes collecting 16 kills and nine service aces, Wichita State snapped a 16-match losing streak to Illinois State 30-23, 26-30, 30-27, 30-19 in a Missouri Valley Conference volleyball match Friday at Redbird Arena.
Younes broke the Redbird Arena record for match service aces of seven, set by former Redbird Andi Hardwick in 1996. Her coach, Chris Lamb, likes her hard-swinging approach.
We miss a lot of serves in Saras rotation, said Lamb. But we score a lot of points when she serves. She always has the green light to rip it.
Staci Boyce led the Redbirds, 4-7, 2-3 in the Valley, with a game-high 18 kills, while Jenny Kabbes and Erin Jones contributed 13 and 11 kills, respectively. But Redbird coach Sharon Dingman said the match was lost on defense.
Weve struggled to pass and the dig the ball and well continue to struggle as long as we dont improve, said Dingman. We arent passing and digging like we need to. A couple of times, we got within two points late in games, then we had a service error. Our 14 service errors were the most weve had all year.
Redbird outside hitter Amber Rogers believes her team just has to push on and get better, starting with Saturdays match with Southwest Missouri State.
We have to rally tomorrow and play together, said Rogers. We have to think about what went wrong tonight and put it into practice, but we have to focus ahead.
The Shockers, 9-7, 2-2 in the Valley, had never won in Redbird Arena before. Lamb paid homage to Redbird Arena, which, he called one of the best places to play volleyball in the nation.
I came from the Pac-10 and I can say Ive been places where they know how to do it, said Lamb. They know how to do it here. Everything they can control is at the top level: the crowd, the facility its all second-to-none and thats one reason its exciting for our team to win here.
In winning game one, the Shockers made just four hitting errors while hitting .333. Younes had four kills and two aces.
The Birds were trailing most of game two, but finally took their first lead 22-21 on a Jones service ace. WSU came back to take a 24-22 lead, but the Birds went to work with a pair of Rogers blocks and two of Boyces seven kills in the game to score the next six points and take the game. After WSU pulled away from a 21-19 lead in game three, Younes put the finishing touches on the match with four kills and four aces in the final game.
Illinois State plays host to Southwest Missouri State at 7 p.m. Saturday in Redbird Arena. The Shockers play move on to play at Indiana State.
