Laura Doornbos is back. The sophomore outside hitter, sidelined for five matches by a sprained ankle, smashed 20 kills to lead Illinois State, but it wasn't enough to overcome unbeaten Missouri Valley Conference leader Southwest Missouri State as the Bears took the Redbirds 30-21, 30-23, 28-30, 30-22 Saturday at Hammons Student Center. The Bears, likely the best team in the nation outside the top 25, won their 13th straight match and showed why they are the class of the Missouri Valley.
The Redbirds, 11-12, 4-7 in the Valley, got 11 kills from Emily Kabbes and improved their defense over Friday's struggles against Wichita State by collecting 64 digs. Savannah Knowles led the digging with a career-high 16. Kelly Rikli had 12 and Ashley Grubb had 11. But Sharon Dingman thought ballhandling errors put the Redbirds at a disadvantage.
"We didn't serve and pass well enough to beat them tonight," said Doornbos. "I was pleased with how we competed in game three. We have to ballhandle better and get everyone involved. We couldn't take advantage of our offensive strength. We can go play Noter Dame and get better and get smarter. That will be the focus (Wednesday) at Notre Dame."
Game three was the brightest spot for ISU. Grubb came in to hit from the outside and landed five kills in six attempts. Doornbos explosed for eight kills in that game as the 'Birsd battled from behind to a 27-27 tie. They forced gae four for the 19th time in 23 matches this season thanks to two kills by Doornbos and and SMS hitting error at the end.
The Bears, 19-3, are 11-0 in the Valley for the first time in school history. Their coach, Melissa Stokes, isn't letting the 'lack of respect' from poll voters bother her.
"We know how tough it is to be ranked," said Stokes, whose team beat No. 10-ranekd Northern owa in four games last week. "We know we're going to be challenged every night and we just want to keep winning and win the conference. that's the surest way to get an NCAA bid."
The vaunted SMS attack ran into a steady Redbird defense in game one as Knowles had nine of the 23 Redbird digs. But the Bears out-hit the 'Birds .273 to .121 in the game and had five blocks to win game one for the 19th time this year. Linette White had six of her game-high 22 kills in game one. Her hitting for the match got support from Erin Murphy with 19 kills and Kaie Werges with 18 kills.
Six SMS service aces were almost exactly the difference in game two. Illinois State hit .364 but were hurt by the aces. The Bears hit .320 in the match with 80 kills. ISU hit .272. The Bears also had a 9-4 service aces edge with Katie Kreimer collecting three.
The Redbirds finish their three straight road games with a Wednesday match at No. 15 Notre Dame before returning home to play Indiana State on Saturday.
