YPSILANTI, Mich. – Closing out a three-game weekend in the Mitten State, the Illinois State volleyball team won their fifth consecutive game, improving to 5-1, as ISU picked up a five-set win over the Eastern Michigan Eagles on Sunday afternoon, 14-25, 25-21, 25-23, 19-25, 16-14.

HOW IT HAPPENED

First Set (14-25): Illinois State saw its streak of 12 consecutive set wins come to an end, as the host Eagles turned a 4-3 deficit into a 9-4 lead on a 6-0 run, as EMU would cruise to the 11-point opening-set win.

Second Set (25-15): The second set started as a back-and-forth battle, with the teams tied at 11 before ISU stretched the advantage to 14-11, as the Birds would not trail again in the 25-21 second set win, evening the match at one set win apiece.

Third Set (25-23): With ISU leading 4-1 early, Eastern Michigan scored nine of the next 10 points to stretch to a five-point, 10-5 lead early in the set. The Eagles kept their lead and extended it to six at 22-16; however, after a Redbird timeout, ISU responded by scoring eight of the final nine points – including eight in a row – to take a 2-1 lead in their match against the Mid-American Conference foe.

Fourth Set (19-25): The fourth set had just two tie scores and only one lead change, with the Eagles stretching out to a 10-4 early lead, and despite ISU closing the gap to a single point a number of times, the hosts would not relinquish their lead, sending the match into the first fifth set of the season for Illinois State.

Fifth Set (16-14): Eastern Michigan jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead in the fifth set – the largest lead by either team in the set – before the Redbirds answered back to the score at 5-5. From there the teams were tied at 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14; before Ruth Ziegler and Abby Reck combined on a block to put ISU ahead 15-14, and a Reck kill closed the door on the two-point, fifth-set win.

KEY STATISTICS

• Illinois State opened with the lineup of 1 Ziegler, 6 Grevengoed, 9 Ella Craggs, 11 Jillian Gregory, 14 Jillian Ferrill, 16 Abby Reck, and liberos 5 Sammi Bunch and 17 Peyton Turner
• The Redbirds improves to a perfect 3-0 against Eastern Michigan
• Illinois State has a 5-1 overall record; the team's best five-match start to a season since the 2019 squad also started 5-1, reaching seven wins before picking up their second loss
• ISU saw its streak of 12 consecutive sets won snapped with a first-set loss, which was tied for the 20th-longest set victory streak in program history
  • The school record for consecutive sets won is 34 set during the 1976 season
• Illinois State has won its last seven games inside the state of Michigan, with the last loss inside the Mitten State coming on September 5, 2009
• Bunch had a season-high 21 digs – the first time a Redbird student-athlete had 20+ digs since Aida Shadewald had 20 against UIC on November 19, 2025
• With Bunch (21), Turner (17), and Emilija Arsic (12) recording double-digit digs, it was the first time since November 19, 2025 that ISU has had three players with double-digits in the category
• The Redbirds had 85 digs in the match, the first time that an ISU team has had 80 or more digs in a match since October 25, 2024 at UIC
• For the third time this season, Ruth Ziegler led the team in kills with a season-high 13
  • She added a team-high three service aces, giving her 16 service aces over her last four matches
• For the second consecutive day, Arsic tied or set a career-high in digs, as she recorded a dozen against Eastern Michigan, topping her previous career-high – which was tied yesterday – by three
  • She added a career-high-tying two service aces
• Logan Grevengoed recorded double-digit kills for the first time this season, as her 11 kills are one off her career-high of 12
• Ella Craggs' 31 assists are team-high for the season, with her previous season-high this year coming with 21 against FDU
• Addisyn Pohl tied her one-day-old career-high in kills with eight more against Eastern Michigan
• For the first time this season, Abby Reck had a double-digit kill performance, as she had 11 against Eastern Michigan
• Peyton Turner set a season-high with 17 digs, her highest total as a Redbird
• Audrey Clark dished out 16 assists – a season-high, and the sixth time in six matches that she has reached double-digit assists

NEXT UP

The Redbirds host Western Illinois, Lindenwood, and Purdue Fort Wayne on September 11-13 at the Linda Herman Volleyball Classic, starting with a 6 p.m. battle with the Leathernecks on Friday afternoon.