This weeks American Volleyball Coaches Association poll had Southwest Missouri State listed as one of the top five in also receiving votes. After the Bears topped Illinois State 30-21, 30-23, 27-30, 30-28 in a Missouri Valley Conference match at Redbird Arena, Illinois State likely would provide some of those votes.
Linette White hit .708 with 18 kills and just one error in 24 attempts as the Bears, 9-3, 2-0 in the Valley, out-hit the Birds, 5-8, 0-3, .292 to .224 for the match. Erin Murphy added 14 kills and Katie Wergest had 10 for SMS, which only suffered three blocks for points the entire match.
Emily Kabbes and Laura Doornbos had 19 kills each for Illinois State and freshman Savannah Knowles had a career-high 13 kills, but it wasnt enough to prevent Illinois State from losing three straight conference matches for just the second time in the teams 21 years of regular-season league play.
Redbird coach Sharon Dingman throught her team didnt come out with enough fire.
We have to be ready to play every single match, said Dingman. We have to be better as coaches to get this team ready to play.
Kabbes agreed.
There are no easy matches in the Valley, said Kabbes. We have to be ready to play.
SMS came out firing, hitting .481 in game one with Werges converting 6 of 8 attempts. ISU had just seven digs off of 27 SMS attempts. The Bears pulled away from a 9-9 tie with a 6-3 run fueled by three ISU hitting errors. SMS slowly pulled away from a 14-14 tie in game two with Murphy and White each picking up four kills during a 12-6 scoring span.
SMS coach Melissa Stokes thought Illinois State got its serving game going in game three.
Our team likes passing jump servers, said Stokes. We did pretty well in the first two games, but early in game three we couldnt get a pass to the target.
Illinois State roared to a 13-3 lead in game three thanks to four early Knowles kills, but had to hang on as SMS chased the Birds down to within 25-24, 26-26 and 27-26 before a service error and a Staci Boyce kill helped ISU finish the game. In game four, ISU led 19-18 on a Doornbos kill, but surrendered that lead on an Erin OConnor kill and three straight White service points including an ace.
The Redbirds play host to Wichita State at 7 p.m. Saturday, while SMS plays at Indiana State.
