For the seventh time in 23 State Farm-Missouri Valley Conference Volleyball Tournaments, Illinois State is opening the tournament against a team the Redbirds played in the final weekend of the conference regular season. The Birds, 21-8, 13-5 in the Valley, play Creighton, 18-10, 10-8, at 12:30 p.m. Friday in the second first-round match of the 2004 tournament at Wichitas Charles Koch Arena.
The results of the first six times Illinois State played a team in the first match of the Valley Tournament that the Birds faced the previous weekend were consistent. Five times, Illinois State won the regular-season match and the first-round tournament match. The only time the Birds lost the regular-season matchto Northern Iowa in 1993the Redbirds lost to the Panthers in the tournament but still earned an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. The five back-to-back weekend wins were against Southern Illinois (1988), Northern Iowa (1989), SMS (1996), Wichita State (1997) and Bradley (1999). Illinois State won all of those and advanced in the tournament.
So the Redbirds four-game win last Friday over Creighton at Redbird Arena could be historically significant. But Redbird head coach Sharon Dingman thinks it is totally unrelated to the near future and figures nobody on the Bluejay or Redbird team busses will be thinking about last weekend.
I think the six teams are so evenly matched (in the tournament) that any one of them could get hot and win it, said Dingman, whose team carries a five-match winning streak into the tournament. Creighton has a good team. Theyve proven that. Were looking at a UNI team that won at Notre Dame last week, an SMS team playing very well, an Indiana State team that had a great finish last weekend and a Wichita State team playing at home. Its exciting.
The Redbirds tied for second with UNI and SMS in the Missouri Valley regular-season standings, but fell victim to the Valley tiebreaker system and drew the fourth seed. Northern Iowa got the No. 2 bye and No. 3 seed SMS plays No. 6 Indiana State in the tournament opener at 10 a.m. Friday.
Illinois State beat Creighton in both regular-season meetings. The key for the Redbirds has been defense. Creighton hit just .115 against ISU compared to .239 vs. the other 26 Bluejay opponents. Illinois State also averaged 18.71 digs per game against CU.
Creightons lineup features three of the conferences second-bests: setter Brittany Coleman is No. 2 in the league assists, outside hitter Leah Ratzlaff is No. 2 in kills and libero Janeen Piller is No. 2 in digs. The Redbird leaders in those categories are senior Kelly Rikli in assists (No. 4 in the league), junior Laura Doornbos in kills (No. 4 in the league) and senior libero Paige White in digs (No. 7 in the league).
The CU-ISU winner plays No. 1 seed Wichita State at 7:30 p.m. Friday, with the winner of that match going to the title match at 7:06 p.m. Saturday. UNIwinners of the last six Valley tournaments--will play the winner of SMS-Indiana State to determine the other finalist. Illinois State has produced champions nine times in the previous 23 tournaments, but none since UNIs current streak began in 1998.
