Illinois State-Indiana State Match Notes in PDF Format
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Nov. 2, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -- The Illinois State volleyball team will look to complete the season sweep over Indiana State, and continue its all-time unblemished home record against the Sycamores when they visit Redbird Arena Friday at 7 p.m. in a Missouri Valley Conference match. Indiana State has never recorded a win at Redbird Arena since the facility opened to Illinois State volleyball in 1989.
The match is being tabbed "Helping Hands" Night for Redbird faithful. Any fan who brings a canned good to the match will receive a discounted ticket of $3.
The `Birds (13-11, 7-6 MVC) are coming off last weekend's road split, when they recorded a convincing three-game sweep over host Drake (Oct. 27), and suffered a four-game setback to Creighton (Oct. 28) at the Civic Center. Despite the loss to the Bluejays, the Redbirds received career-best performances out of four of their starters in the match, including a triple-double (10 kills, 12 digs, 53 set assists) from setter Erin Lindsey. It marked just the third individual triple-double in the Valley this season.
Head coach Sharon Dingman believes that her team has an elevated confidence level heading into the stretch run of the MVC regular season slate.
"We're playing with a lot of confidence right now," said Dingman. "After our loss at Northern Iowa a couple weeks back (Oct. 14), our players really recommitted themselves as to what they wanted to accomplish this season. That has shown in our last seven matches, and it was even evident in our loss to Creighton. That was a great volleyball match between two pretty evenly matched teams, and I like the way we battled.
"In the last month and a half, we're 9-3, and that turn around is a great credit to the players on this team. I like where we are statistically compared to the first half of the season. We still need to continue to improve our kills-per-game and become a more fundamentally sound serving and blocking team. If we do those things, I think we have a great chance to make a run."
Illinois State owns a 40-5 all-time advantage over Indiana State (4-20, 1-12 MVC). The Redbirds recorded a three-game sweep over the Sycamores in Terre Haute, Ind. on Oct. 7. Indiana State is currently in the midst of an eight-match losing streak, and has been playing short-handed with the loss of their two top setters.
"Indiana State has been playing without their setter (Alisha Polite), who is out for the year, so that can make things hard on any team," Dingman said. "Their record isn't much better than it was last year, but they are such an improved volleyball team from what they were a year ago. A big part of that is their freshman setter (Whitney Nichols) who stepped in for Alisha when she went out. Whitney had been having one of the biggest impacts of any of the young players in this league, and then she went out with a broken hand. We don't know if she'll play Friday. But any time you suffer those types of injuries to your impact players, it's tough on a team. What we do know is that they will play hard, as Indiana State always does."
Friday's match will be the lone weekend contest for the Redbirds. Illinois State will be back in action next Friday (Nov. 10) when they travel to Peoria, Ill. to face rival Bradley.
