Despite career highs of 20 kills by Kari Staehlin, 24 digs by Paige White and 19 digs by Savannah Knowles, Illinois State fell to undefeated Western Kentucky to a 30-26, 29-31, 30-25, 30-24 in opening round action of the Western Kentucky Invitational.
Emily Kabbes had seven of her 16 kills and Kari Staehlin added six in game one, but WKU rebounded from a four-point deficit to take control at the end. Defense dominated the first game, with the Toppers collecting 27 and ISU 20.
The Redbirds, 3-2, bounced back in game two after trailing 25-20. Knowles hammered a pair of kills and Staehlin had back-to-back blocks to start an 8-2 ISU spurt which put the Birds in control. Digging took over again in game three as WKU, 5-0, had 31 and ISU 28 including Whites 11, but the Toppers made the plays at the end, sprinting from a 25-24 lead with a 6-1 finish.
In game four Staehlin had seven kills, but WKU pulled away from a 19-18 edge with four straight points and had ISU chasing from there. The digging made long rallies the ruleeach team averaged more than 20 digs per game and both teams had 198 total attack attempts. WKU out-hit the Birds .242 to .192 for the match.
Redbird coach Sharon Dingman thought her team fought through a lot of adversity against a good team.
A lot of things went against us, said Dingman. But we did a lot of things well. Im proud of the fact that we matched them in digs (86 for WKU, 85 for ISU) and we out-blocked them (15-9 in team blocks). But Western Kentucky is a veteran team of almost all juniors and seniors and they hung in there and made plays.
WKU had four players in double figures in kills led by Crystal Towler with 18. Kabbes led the Redbird block with eight.
The Redbirds continue their tournament play with two matches Saturday. They play South Florida at noon and Southeast Missouri State at 3 p.m. The Bulls, 2-1, took a 30-23, 30-27, 30-26 from SEMO, 0-5, on Friday.
