A couple of weeks ago, Illinois State volleyball coach Sharon Dingman said she was looking forward to a non-conference match with DePaul and thought it would benefit her team, which had lost five in a row. Well, that DePaul match was the start of the Redbirds current three-match winning streak heading into Tuesdays non-league match at Northern Illinois.
We started playing better. I thought in game two, we looked pretty shaky, but we came out and showed a lot of confidence. The game four vs. DePaul helped us feel good about ourselves this weekend. Our team feels comfortable in fifth games. Staci did a great job of getting us going and Grubb got some big dkills. We know how to play them. Theres no reason not to be confident.
Even though the Redbirds lost kill leader Laura Doornbos to an ankle sprain in the DePaul match, the Birds won that one and two road league contests over the weekend -- both five-gamers -- and now are 8-10 overall, 2-5 in the Missouri Valley. Northern Illinois, 14-4, is 11-1 in non-conference matches this season and features a balanced offense set by sophomore Marie Zidek and led by junior outside hitter Tera Lobdell. The only Huskie non-conference loss was to No. 10 Northern Iowa.
Game four against DePaul really helped us to feel good about ourselves going into the weekend, said Dingman. We just started playing better.
Historically, ISU-NIU matches have gone either four or five games. The prospect of a long match shouldnt bother Illinois State which has played just two three-game matches this season. The weekend wins at Southern Illinois and at Evansville both went the limit, with ISUs wins the result of a variety of heroes as well as some lineup shake-ups.
Our team feels comfortable in fifth games, said Dingman. We know how to play them and were confident.
Maura McCarthy stepped into Doornbos spot against DePaul in game four and sparked a match-ending rally. McCarthy also came through in game five in both the SIU and UE wins. She had three kills in the final game at SIU and four kills in game five at UE. McCarthys game-five hitting percentage is .500 (7 of 14 without an error)--.380 higher than her season percentage.
At SIU, Dingman juggled her lineup during the match, but, in the end, Emily Kabbes serving and Staci Boyces finishing two kills and two blocks made the difference. At Evansville, the shuffle included defensive specialist Jessie Janik and libero Paige White swapping roles, Amber Rogers rejoining the lineup on the right side and Ashley Grubb moving from right side to left. It all came together in game five as Grubb hammered four kills in that deciding game.
The only two ISU players to start every match this season in the same position are Kabbes at middle blocker and junior setter Kelly Rikli, who is moving up among the all-time Redbird leaders in career set assists (6th) and career set assists per game (2nd). With another season still remaining, Rikli is closing in on 2,300 assists and is 169 behind No. 5 Karen Hopkins on the Redbird career list. Dingman believes Rikli helps make all the adjustments work.
The players all have a lot of confidence in each other, said Dingman. Most of the time, injuries have forced our hand to make changes. For this group, I think a lot of that confidence stems from Kelly. She doesnt hesitate to set all of her hitters. That confidence filters down throughout the team
The Redbirds play seven of their last 11 league matches at Redbird Arena starting with Fridays special 6 p.m. starting time against Drake and Saturdays 7 p.m. match with Creighton.
