NORMAL, Ill. - Illinois State football head coach Brock Spack will preview his team's upcoming game at Southern Illinois and ISU volleyball head coach Melissa Myers will preview a pair of weekend Valley games at home at the Illinois State Coaches Luncheon Tuesday, Oct. 15, at noon at the Kaufman Football Building.
Coming off a pair of victories over ranked opponents at home, No. 22 ranked Illinois State (5-3, 3-2 MVFC) will hit the road for the final time during the 2011 season for an in-state showdown with Southern Illinois (2-5, 1-4 MVFC) at the recently built Saluki Stadium on Halloween weekend. Southern Illinois leads the all-time series 38-32-3 and has won the last four meetings in the series overall against Illinois State. The Redbirds' last win in the series came in 2006 and their last win in Carbondale was in 2005, when ISU defeated No. 1 ranked SIU, 61-35, at McAndrew Stadium.
Coach Spack will be joined by sophomore defensive lineman Shelby Harris and senior center Cal McCarthy at this week's luncheon. Harris was named the Missouri Valley Football Conference Defenisve Player of the Week, after he tied his career-high with two sacks and set a new career standard with two tackles-for-loss in the victory over the Sycamores. McCarthy, who has started 19 consecutive games at center for the Redbirds, is one of five seniors on the line that has allowed the fewest sacks in the nation to its opponents.
The Redbird volleyball team is coming off a weekend split with in-state rival Bradley and No. 11 Northern Iowa. ISU extended its Valley win streak to five games in a row with a straight-set victory over the Braves last Friday in Peoria, before falling in four sets to the nationally-ranked Panthers in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Saturday. The Redbirds return home this weekend for a Friday contest with Drake and a Saturday showdown with Creighton in hopes of extending their home winning streak to five games in a row.
Coach Myers will be joined at the weekly press luncheon by sophomore LeighAnn Hranka. Hranka posted a pair of double-double efforts last weekend in the split for the Redbirds. She tallied 11 kills and 13 digs and had two solo blocks in the win over the Braves Friday and followed that up with 12 and 11 digs against No. 11 UNI Saturday night.
The live video can be seen on Redbird All-Access, the Illinois State Athletics Department's exclusive multimedia platform. The video will also be archived following the completion of the press conference and can then be viewed on demand. Weekly programming schedules and complete Redbird All-Access information are also available online.
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