Twenty-five kills by Laura Doornbos and 23 more by Emily Kabbes--including five in the deciding fifth game--led Illinois State to a 26-30, 30-20, 31-29, 28-30, 15-12 win over host Denver to go 2-0 in the five-team University of Denver Invitational.
The match boiled down to the first rally game of the season for the 'Birds. After falling behind 3-1, ISU battled back to take a 10-8 lead thanks to Savannah Knowles' kill, a dig-kill by Doornbos and a Knowles/Kabbes block. Kabbes followed with two more kills to put the Redbirds at 12-9. She finished it with a kill after DU crept to 14-12.
Knowles, who had five kills and eight errors in the first four games, had four kills without a miss in game five.
Redbird coach Sharon Dingman thought the 2-hour, 15-minute match was about as good as college volleyball gets.
"What a tremendous match," Dingman said. "Five games against a good team on the road ... to come back and win was just great. Really, Savannah's serving in game four got us the momentum going into game five. And Emily was just tremendous all match long. They tried everything to stop her and couldn't, and her blocks in game five were huge. Kelly Rikli kept going to her on offense and it kept clicking. Kelly was a huge difference for us."
Ashley Grubb led ISU's defense with 14 digs and Kabbes had 7 blocks as ISU out hit DU .270 to .178 for the match. Denver had an 18-12 block edge, but the Redbirds had 62 digs and 79 kills to Denver's 48 and 60.
Denver stretched a nip-and-tuck first game into a 16-12 lead before Doornbos cracked back-to-back kills. Amber Rogers added another before two DU hitting errors got the 'Birds ahead 17-16 with Rikli serving. But that was the last Redbird lead, as UD earned a 24-20 advantage and held off two ISU challenges. Five UD service aces and four net calls against ISU helped make the difference.
Staci Boyce, who finished with 14 kills and 9 digs, began game two with a service ace and that was a sign of things to come as a succession of aggressive servers for the 'Birds kept Denver out of its offense and allowed ISU to score on some overpasses. Five Kabbes service points, including an ace, put ISU in command 28-18.
Game three was tied at every point from 1 through 9, but Denver benefitted from a block error, an overpass kill and a service ace by Amanda Millard while taking a 12-9 lead. The 'Birds chased and chased, and finally caught the Pioneers at 29-29 before winning on a pair of Doornbos service points, including an ace which put ISU ahead 30-29 and an unreturnable shot at game point.
ISU had to give chase again in game four after the hard-swinging Pioneers built a 12-6 lead, but Denver held firm with the help of four blocking points in the final nine of the game and five Lisa Hunter service aces. When Denver took a 28-21 lead, it looked like game five was around the corner. But Kabbes led a 7-1 run to bring ISU back within 29-28. Olympia Hughes tipped a shot over the Redbird block for game point to force game five.
Earlier in the day, Doornbos had 21 kills and six blocks to lead the 'Birds past Miami of Ohio 30-21, 28-30, 30-22, 30-24 in the first match of the tournament. Central Florida fell to both Denver and Colorado in Friday's second and third matches of the day. It was just the second doubleheader sweep for the Redbirds in 10 opportunities over the past seven seasons. The 'Birds swept Missouri-Kansas City and Wisconsin-Milwaukee Sept. 1, 2001 in the Barker GMC Classic at Redbird Arena. ISU had eight splits and were swept once in the other seven previous tries.
The 'Birds, 3-2 overall, 2-0 in the tournament, will try to win the tournament with Saturday matches against Colorado and Central Florida.
