NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State volleyball team earned a 3-0 sweep over Evansville Saturday night to close out its regular season with 20 wins, while securing the No. 3 seed for the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, which begins Wednesday at Redbird Arena. Illinois State won Saturday's match by scores of 25-10, 25-16, 25-16.
Jaelyn Keene and Sydney Holt racked up 11 kills apiece to pace the Redbird offensive attack. Stef Jankiewicz dished out 33 assists and posted a team-high four blocks. Courtney Pence led the Redbirds with 13 digs.
Illinois State (20-11, 13-5 MVC) moved into a third-place finish in the league standings with Saturday's win and the Redbirds will be the No. 3 seed in the MVC Tournament. The Redbirds will face No. 6-seed Valparaiso (17-15, 8-10) Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in a conference tournament quarterfinal match.
Illinois State got off to a strong start Saturday and never trailed in the opening set. After taking an early 6-1 edge, the Redbirds steadily built on their lead, using runs of three- and four-straight points to go ahead at 18-7. Illinois State then scored the final six points in the set, the final point coming on a kill from Juma Armando.
Back-and-forth early in the second set, Illinois State broke a 10-10 tie with three-straight points. The three-point rally was the start of a 12-3 run for the Redbirds, who pulled away and took a 2-0 lead into the break after a set-winning kill from Holt.
Evansville (10-20, 4-14) held a pair of early leads in the third set, but the Redbirds kept up with the Purple Aces before moving ahead with an eight-point spree, featuring three kills from Holt, to go ahead at 17-8. After trading points with Evansville down the stretch, the Redbirds finished off the sweep with back-to-back kills from Holt.
The MVC Tournament will be held at Redbird Arena, Thursday through Saturday. Fans can purchase single- and all-session passes online at GoRedbirds.com/Tickets, by calling (309) 438-8000, or by visiting the ticket office, located at the north entrance to Redbird Arena.
GoRedbirds.com: Your online source for Illinois State Athletics tickets, Weisbecker Scholarship Fund gifts, multimedia, Redbird merchandise, photos and more.
