Laura Doornbos collected 6 kills of her 12 kills in the first 13 points of game three and Savannah Knowles had long service runs in the final two games to help Illinois State pull away from Drake for a 30-26, 23-30, 30-16, 30-16 in the Missouri Valley Conference season-opener for both teams Friday in Des Moines.
The Redbirds, 5-2, 1-0, have beaten the Bulldogs 17 straight times dating back to 1996. Doornbos got game three help from her opposite left-side hitter, Knowles, who served six points including an ace to help the Redbirds build a 7-1 lead.
Knowles earned herself the serve with a kill to give ISU a 4-2 lead in game four, then stayed on the baseline for nine more points as the Redbirds rolled to a 13-2 edge which reached 22-6 before Redbird coach Sharon Dingman cleared her bench a bench Dingman said helped ISU get the match turned around.
The energy we got from our bench really made a difference, said Dingman, whose team is 1-0 in the Valley for the first time since 2000. They were important in getting the player on the floor to turn things around.
The turnaround was necessary because the Redbirds were out-dug 39-19 and out-blocked 7-4 in the first two games. Dingman admitted she had some things to say at the intermission between games two and three, but claims her team addressed the problems where it counted.
Our team responded (to the game two loss) well, and I felt the players made the statement they wanted to make, said Dingman, whose Redbirds started the league season with a win for the first time in four years. They were the first team to win the Barker GMC Classic. They wanted to be the first team to start the season with a win in a few years. If they want to do things Illinois State hasnt done for a while, they knew they would have to turn things around tonight.
The Bulldogs, 2-6, 0-1, got a match-high 19 kills from Lindsey Johnson. Kari Staehlin led ISU with 13 and Emily Kabbes added 10. The Birds had a 9-4 ace advantage, including four by Doornbos.
The Redbird hitting was sluggish in game one, but Doornbos back-to-back aces gave ISU a 28-25 lead and the Birds held on. Drake out-blocked the ISU 6-1 in game one and continued to patrol the net in building an 19-12 lead in game two. A Knowles kill, a Staehlin block and back-to-back Staehlin kills closed the gap to 20-16. But Drake stormed out of a time out with three straight points to regain a lead of seven and the Bulldogs were able to hold-off the Birds the rest of the way.
But ISU dominated the final two games, out-hitting the Bulldogs .238 to .000 in the final two games.
The Redbirds complete their Valley road swing with a 7 p.m. Saturday match at Creighton before returning to Redbird Arena to play Bradley (Friday) and Northern Iowa (Saturday) next weekend.
