Emily Kabbes led the way with 21 kills and Illinois State outhit Evansville .319 to .199, to help the Birds to a four-game victory over Evansville, 28-30, 30-28, 30-16, and 30-20, Friday night at Redbird Arena. With the win, Illinois State ups its all-time record to 20-0 over Evansville.
Kabbes was not the only Redbird who had a big night, as Laura Doornbos pitched in 20 kills and Savanah Knowles added 17.
In game one, Evansville jumped out to a 10-5 lead behind three Lacy Haller kills and eventually held the biggest lead of the game at 19-11. Illinois State went on a 16-6 run, highlighted by 6 Knowles kills, to take a 28-26 lead, capped off by an emphatic Staci Boyce kill. The Purple Aces scored the final four, capped by Hallers sixth and seventh kills of the game to take game one 30-28. Illinois State out-hit Evansville in game one .259 to .232, as Knowles (8) and Doornbos (5) combined for 13 kills.
After dropping game one, coach Sharon Dingman thought her team showed its true colors with its resilency.
When we needed to get going tonight we got going, and we got really good, we just made it hard on ourselves early, said Dingman. You have to have very strong character and leadership to bounce back the way we did after game one. The energy picked up in game two, and by game three, everyone was playing great.
Game two saw Evansville jump to an early at 12-6 and eventually build it to 16-10, as the Birds hit only .053 percent up to that point in the match. ISU an 8-2 run to tie the score at 18. The teams traded points until Illinois State took the lead at 24-23. Much like game one, the two teams battled to the wire, but this time it was the Birds winning out. Emily Kabbes led the way in game two with 7 kills.
I think the big difference tonight was our poor execution on service receives, as well as the fact that we could not stop Emily Kabbes, said Evansville head coach Mike Swan. She pounded on us all night.
The Birds finally got out of the gates first in game three, as they built a 6-1 lead. The Redbirds never let up, as they built their lead to 13 at 29-16, and made it 14 on Knowles game-winning kill, as ISU won game three 30-16 to take a 2-1 lead in the match. Kabbes was once again a force on the front lines for the Redbirds, as she was 6-8 on kills with no errors in game three.
Our passing was great tonight and they were having a tough time reading it, said Kabbes. You could tell their blockers didnt know what to do, so I kind felt we would have success all night long.
As a team we played awesome tonight, said Rikli. With everyone contributing it made it easy on me. Our players off the bench were great tonight, and thats why we had 75 kills.
Much like game four, the Redbirds started strong, as they built an early seven-point lead at 13-6. The fiesty Purple Aces, brought it to within three at 20-17. The Birds closed the match out in grand style though, as they ended game four on a 10-3 run to win in four, 3-1.
With the win the Redbirds move to 13-13 overall and 6-7 in the Valley, while Evansville falls to 6-21 on the season, and 1-13 in league play. Illinois State will host Southern Illinois Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Redbird Arena.
