NORMAL, Ill. Maybe the best news for the Illinois State and DePaul volleyball teams is that when they meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Redbird Arena, one of them will earn a much-needed win. The Birds will be trying to snap a five-match losing streak and the Demons have lost four of their last five.
DePaul, 7-10, is looking to go 3-0 this season against the Valley. The Blue Demons, whose lineup includes former Normal Community High School player Mandy Moorberg, beat Evansville in four games Sept. 6 and Drake 3-0 a week later. DePaul is trying to beat the Redbirds for only the third time in 24 meetings, but the Demons won the last match with Illinois State 3-1 in Chicago two years ago.
Redbird coach Sharon Dingman thinks her teams formula for winning has not changed.
Right now, were a good team that just hasnt been playing well, said Dingman. At this point, thats the focus. We need to correct the inconsistencies in execution and effort. When youre not winning, you have two choices: you can persevere and get better or you can throw in the white flag. This team will persevere.
Illinois State, 5-10, is approaching the mid-point of a season where the Redbirds stand a good chance to break the school record for games played per match. Illinois States averaging 4.33 games per match. The Redbird record is 3.95 games per match in 1995. In the past 10 years, the only Missouri Valley Conference team to average above 4.00 games per match was Indiana State, which played 139 games in 34 matches (4.088 per match) in 1997.
The Redbirds are coming off their seventh five-game match of the season, a 3-2 loss Saturday at Indiana State. Sophomore Emily Kabbes had 21 kills and a .567 hitting percentage while freshman Savannah Knowles had a career-high 20 kills. The Redbird offense continues to hammer away with a .225 hitting percentage and 14.75 kills per game around junior setter Kelly Rikli.
Illinois State goes back to work in the Valley with two more road games this weekend: Friday at Southern Illinois (3-13, 0-6) and Saturday at Evansville (5-11, 1-5). After this weekend, the Redbirds play seven of their last 11 league matches at Redbird Arena.
