Kelly Rikli's 33 set assists, 9 digs, 5 kills and 4 blocks led a balanced offense and keyed a tight defense as Illinois State defeated Northern Illinois 30-25, 30-25, 30-23 at Victor E. Court. Freshman Savannah Knowles had 11 kills, while Maura McCarthy, Staci Boyce and Emily Kabbes added 10 each as the 'Birds won their fourth straight.
The Redbirds, 9-10, out-hit the Huskies, 14-5, .286 to .117 and had a 52-39 dig advantage behind 10 by Paige White.
Redbird head coach Sharon Dingman praised Rikli's leadership, which has been more important lately because, at the start of the four-match win streak, the team lost No. 1 hitter Laura Doornbos to an ankle injury.
"Kelly controlled the court tonight," said Dingman, who is two wins away from No. 250 for her 13-year college coaching career. "At the net, digging, setting ... she did it all. Kelly kept our team on track. They (NIU) tried different blocking schemes and Kelly recognized them and took advantage of what our offense could do. Our team has so much confidence in Kelly's leadership."
The Huskies got 21 kills from Tera Lobdell and 10 from Kate McCullough, but no more than four from any other source.
Rikli enjoys spreading the Redbird offense.
"I have confidence in all of our hitters," said Rikli. "It starts with the pass and we've been getting that lately. Paige White has really stepped up and taht gives us options for all of our hitters."
Kabbes, who hit .500 with 10 kills in 18 attempts and only one error, knows that Rikli is the pivotal point in the Redbird offesne. Kabbes and Boyce combnied for 11 of the Redbirds' 16 game-one kills to start the Redbirds out to their first 3-0 win of the season.
"Kelly knows where to go with the sets to get us all involved," said Kabbes. "She got the middles (Kabbes and Boyce) involved early and that had their middles jumping with us. That gave our outside hitters great opportunities to put the ball away."
The Redbirds extended their all-time record against NIU to 28-11.
ISU took control of game one late. Knowles drilled a kill cross court to give ISU a 24-23 lead. That put Boyce on the service line and she put the Huskie offense on its heels. Two NIU hitting errors were the result of ineffective passes and a Boyce ace put ISU ahead 27-23, setting up for game-finishing kills by Kabbes and Knowles.
Game two saw the Huskies up 24-22 when ISU caught fire on two kills by Knowles and three service points by Boyce. The 'Birds finished that game with an 8-1 run.
NIU led 11-10 in game three when a McCarthy kill put Jessie Janik on the service line for a three-point run to put the 'Birds up 14-11. NIU never got closer than two points after that.
Illinois State plays seven of its last 11 Missouri Valley Conference matches at Redbird Arena, starting with Drake on Friday at 6 p.m. and Creighton on Saturday at 7 p.m.
