CHICAGO – Sophomore outside hitter Tamara Otene posted a career-best 27 kills in Illinois State volleyball's four-set loss (28-16, 23-25, 18-25, 18-25) to Missouri Valley Conference leading Loyola-Chicago. With the loss, Illinois State falls to 16-13 overall and 12-5 in MVC play, while the Ramblers clinch at least a share of the regular season conference title, improving to 20-8 overall and 13-3 in league play.
No one in the Valley has more kills in a four-set match this season than Otene, whose 27 kills accounted for nearly half of Illinois State's 57 kills against the Ramblers. Hitting an impressive .404, Otene was just one dig shy of her second-straight double-double with nine digs on the night. Now with 448 total kills on the season, Otene ranks third all-time in Illinois State history for total kills by a Redbird sophomore.
Defensively, libero Kaity Weimerskirch covered the floor, finishing with a match-high 26 digs, her 15th 20+ dig performance of the season.
The opening set was a battle that would take extra points. The 'Birds came back to get the 28-26 win after being down by as many as six at multiple points throughout the set. Illinois State closed out on a 6-2 run, taking advantage of four of the Ramblers' eight errors that came at the end of set one.
ISU took an early 6-1 lead in the second set, scoring six unanswered points before Loyola-Chicago was able to fight their way back and tie it up at 17. Loyola-Chicago's final three kills came from Sarah Murczek as the Ramblers' claimed the set two comeback win, 25-23. The final two sets were controlled by the Ramblers the entire way as the 'Birds struggled to get into a rhythm, dropping sets three and four both by a score of 25-18.
QUOTE FROM HEAD COACH LEAH JOHNSON
On Tamara Otene's career night:
"She's phenomenal. I think she's the best player in the league, and she's the only one we had tonight offensively. It's really hard to win matches when you have six attackers on the court and only one of them can get a kill for you. Everyone was trying, they (Loyola-Chicago) did a great job. We got frustrated, and they (Loyola-Chicago) won the out of system game."
UP NEXT
The Redbirds return home for one final regular season match against I-74 rival Bradley on Friday, November 19 at 6 p.m. inside Redbird Arena. Illinois State will celebrate its three seniors following the match.
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