ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The Illinois State volleyball program was selected to win the Missouri Valley Conference while seniors Kaity Weimerskirch and Sarah Kushner were named preseason All-MVC, announced the conference office after a poll of the MVC's 12 head coaches.
Illinois State finished second in the MVC in 2021 but won the conference tournament en route to qualifying for its fourth-straight NCAA Tournament. The program has never qualified for the NCAA Tournament in five-straight seasons and will seek to do so in 2022.
The MVC Libero of the Year in 2021, Weimerskirch has played in 86-of-89 matches over three seasons with the Redbirds. Her 611 digs in 2021 ranked second all-time in school history for digs in a single season. Weimerskirch became the 16th Redbird to surpass 1,000 career digs. She was also second on the team with 28 service aces. For her success in the classroom, Weimerskirch was presented with the league's Elite 17 Award at the 2021 MVC Volleyball Championship, in addition to being named MVC Scholar-Athlete First-Team and CoSIDA Academic All-District.
Kushner was named First-Team All-MVC in 2021. Kushner is at 866 career kills and 951 career digs and would become the seventh Redbird to reach 1,000 in both categories. She led the MVC in double-doubles with 19. Kushner had 22 double-digit kill performances while leading the team with 29 service aces. Kushner was named CoSIDA Academic All-District.
PRESEASON POLL
1. Illinois State (5)..................................134
2. Evansville (2)......................................121
3. UIC (3).................................................108
4. Bradley ................................................99
5. Valparaiso (1).......................................95
6. UNI (1) ..................................................94
7. Missouri State......................................80
8. Indiana State........................................ 71
9. Drake....................................................49
10. Murray State ........................................43
11. Belmont................................................26
12. Southern Illinois...................................16
The team is scheduled to host its Red-White Scrimmage on August 19 at 6:00 p.m. at Redbird Arena. Illinois State is also scheduled for an exhibition at DePaul on August 20 before opening the season at Cincinnati on August 26.
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