On Senior Night, senior setter Kelly Rikli needed just three games to get her first career triple-double, recording 12 kills, 11 digs and 54 set assists to lead Illinois State to a 28-30, 30-19, 30-17, 30-15 win over Drake in a Missouri Valley Conference match Saturday at Redbird Arena.
Rikli had her triple-double secured by getting her 10th kill and 10th dig on back-to-back plays late in game three. Riklis fellow seniors helped their team finish the 2004 regular season on a winning note. Libero Paige White had 15 digs in her home finale and middle blocker Amber Rogers converted all three of her attack attempts and added a block in her final match in Redbird Arena.
The Redbirds, 21-8 overall, 13-5 in the Missouri Valley, beat the Bulldogs for the 18th straight time and the 40th time in 45 meetings with the help of Savannah Knowles 18 kills, Laura Doornbos 16 kills, Emily Kabbes 13 kills and a game-high 21 digs by Ashley Grubb.
Finishing the season tied for second in the Valley, the Redbirds earned the No. 4 seed in the six-team State Farm-Missouri Valley Conference Tournament. They play No. 5 seed Creighton--a team they defeated Friday in four games--at 12:30 p.m. Friday following the SMS-Indiana State match between the No. 3 and No. 6 seed. The winner of the first match plays No. 2 seed UNI at 5 p.m. and the Illinois State-Creighton winner plays No. 1 seed Wichita State at 7:30 p.m. The title game is at 7:06 p.m. Saturday, broadcast on Fox Sports and other cable outlets.
The Bulldogs finish their season 3-26, 1-17 in the Valley won game one with a burst of blocking led by Samantha Nelson, who had three blocks and six kills in that game. Nelson finished with 10 kills and six blocks. Eve Johnson led the Bulldogs with 13 kills and Lindsay Patterson had 17 digs. The Redbirds had a 77-47 edge in kills, a 75-58 lead in digs, but Drake had 11 team blocks to ISUs seven.
Illinois State rode six kills in its first 10 attempts to a 9-3 lead in game one, but the Drake block got the momentum on the Bulldog side. Highlighted by seven blocks, the Bulldogs scored 22 of the next 31 points to take a 25-18 lead. Drake led 29-22 when a Grubb kill got Maura McCarthy to the ISU service line. Two aces and three Drake hitting errors and ISU was back within 29-28, but Betsy Funk finished the game with a kill off the Redbird block.
It was a good game for Drake coach Randy Dolsons team.
I was proud of our blocking, said Dolson. Samantha is one of the top blockers in the conference and going to get better.
Dolson admired the job Rikli did in earning Illinois State's first triple-double since Becky Weber turned the trick three years ago at Wichita State.
She is so versatile in her attacks, said Dolson. Power tip, deep right corner, deep left corner you never know where its coming. And, as far as pure setting is concerned, I think shes first-team all-conference. This conference has a lot of talent, but Rikli, with her leadership and her play, makes a huge difference.
McCarthys late serving helped the Birds pull away in game two. With ISU leading 23-18, Grubb again got McCarthy to the service line and she added three more to put ISU in command 27-18. Knowles had nine of ISUs 23 kills in game three as the Birds hit .465 after hitting just .157 in game one and Drake didnt have a single block in the game.
Drake opened game three with a 3-0 lead, but the Birds answered when an Kabbes kill gave the serve to Kelly Rikli, who had a pair of aces among her five service points to put ISU ahead 6-3. With 20 kills and 20 digs, the Redbirds finished game three with a 7-1 run. Leading 7-6 in game four, ISU used Kari Staehlins three kills and one block during a 7-0 spurt on the way a fast finish.
The win makes the Redbirds 13-1 at home this season, the second-best home record for a volleyball team in 16 years of play at Redbird Arena.
The Birds to join Northern Iowa as the only two teams in 22 years of league round-robin play to reach 250 wins. Illinois State is 250-65 The Panthers are 272-43. Only SMS (234-81) is over .500 among the other teams.
