After two games, Illinois State was ahead 11-7 in blocks and 2-0 in games over Southwest Missouri State, but the Bears stormed back with a building record 23 total blocks in a 23-30, 27-30, 30-22, 30-19, 15-13 in a Missouri Valley Conference volleyball match Friday at Hammons Student Center.
The Birds, 12-3, 5-1 in the Valley, saw the Bears put a cap to ISUs nine-match winning streaks with their seventh straight win over Illinois State. SMS is the bookends on a 12-match regular-season Missouri Valley Conference winning streak for Illinois State. ISUs last previous regular-season league loss was Oct. 25, 2003 at SMS.
Laura Doornbos led the Birds with 19 kills and Savannah Knowles had a career-high 24 blocks for the Birds, who were out-hit .236 to .159. Katie Werges had 16 kills and Sarah Lansing 13 blocks to lead the Bears. Paige White added 22 digs to ISUs total, but SMS led that stat 80-75 for the match.
SMS, 11-5, 5-2 in the Valley, extends its home-court winning streak to 22 straight regular-season matches. The only Bears home-court loss at Hammons Center in the last three seasons was to Northern Iowa in the 2003 State Farm-Missouri Valley Conference Tournament.
SMS came out stronger in game three, said Dingman. Our focus between games two and three was being mentally strong and we werent able to get that done. This is one we probably need to think about for a while because we didnt do the things we needed to do to win after game two.
Staehlin and White put up the defense in game one. Staehlin had a hand in all five Redbird blocks and White had eight of ISUs 12 digs as the Birds out-hit SMS .270 to .143. SMS cut a six-point lead to 20-19 before Staehlin went to work, collecting two kills and four blocks in the final 10 Redbird points of the game.
The Birds built a 20-15 lead in game two before the Bears stormed back to earn a tie on a Sarah Lansing block, but ISU scrambled back with three straight points a kill by Knowles, a block by Knowles and Staehlin and an SMS ballhandling error to take a 24-21 lead. Late kills by Ashley Grubb and Laura Doornbos helped ISU take a 2-0 games lead.
In game three, White continued her strong serving and hit three in a row to bring the Birds within 10-9, but then a White serve was overpassed and fell on the ISU side of the court. That was the first of eight unanswered SMS points and the Bears built an 18-9 lead, enough to win. SMS had a 5-0 block lead in game three. Game four saw the Bears mount a 22-9 lead on the way to the win.
Game five was a see-saw battle with SMS taking a 13-10 lead before kills by Knowles, Staehlin and Doornbos got the Redbirds even. But SMS got a kill from Werges and a block from Lansing to win their seventh straight over ISU.
The Redbirds continue their road trip Saturday at undefeated Valley leader Wichita State.
