KEVIN JENISON
GoSycamores.com
NORMAL, ILL. – The Indiana State volleyball team opened with a win in the opening set Thursday night against Illinois State but the home standing Redbirds rallied to take the final three sets to defeat the Sycamores 3-1 (25-23, 14-15, 24-26, 14-25) in a Missouri Valley Conference game.
Several Sycamores had career nights despite the loss. Indiana State freshman Morgan Dall (Aciston, Ill.) had 19 kills in 60 attempts and a team high 20 points, all career highs. Junior Ana Maira Charun (Lima, Peru) contributed 12 kills in a career high 52 attempts while freshman Auriel Armstrong (Long Beach, Calif.) had eight kills in 14 attempts, a team high 0.429 hitting percentage, four service aces and 14 points, all career highs.
Senior Whitney Fromm (Snohomish, Wash.) recorded her 14th double-double of the season with 38 assists and 12 digs. The 38 digs give the senior 2,914 career digs, moving her into third place on the Sycamore All-Time list. Fromm moved past Annette Runge who had 2,882 assists from 1988-1991.
Sophomore Kiya James (Indianapolis, Ind.) led the defense with 26 digs, her eighth game of 20-plus digs. The sophomore now has 496 digs this season which ranks fourth on the ISU all-time single season list. She is 29 digs behind Kristy Cox who had the third best single season total of 525 digs as a sophomore in 2006.
Illinois State jumped out to a 4-0 lead early in the opening set and had a 9-2 lead before the Sycamores caught fire and tied the set at 13-all. Indiana State went up 15-13 on a kill by freshman Shea Doran (Martinsville, Ind.) and the Sycamores never trailed the rest of the set. Illinois State rallied to tie the set at 18.
Charun put ISU back on top with a kill off a set by Fromm, scored on a service ace, and senior Stephanie Volden (McFarland, Wis.) knocked one down off another Fromm set to push the Sycamore lead to 21-18. The Redbirds fought back but the Sycamores were able to fend off the run with an Armstrong kill and a Fromm service ace. The Redbirds denied ISU the set point twice before Dall gave the Sycamores a 25-23 win on a kill.
The momentum that the Sycamores had from winning the opening set evaporated in the second set. Illinois State ran off to a 3-0 lead with Indiana State coming back on two Armstrong kills, two by Charun and one by Doran to take a 6-3 lead. The Redbirds scored four straight points to regain the advantage with Indiana State coming back to tie the set three times, the last at 9-all. The Redbirds took control after that, scoring 16 of the next 21 points to even the game at a set each with a 25-14 win.
The key to the game came in the third set as both sides fought to gain control and neither side would give in. There were 17 ties and nine lead changes in the third set. The third set was tied at 23-all after an Armstrong kill and the Sycamores had a chance for set point after an Illinois State attack error gave Indiana State a 24-23 lead.
After a Redbird timeout, Illinois State scored two straight points to lead 25-24 before an Indiana State timeout. The Redbirds took advantage of a Sycamore error to win the third set 26-24 and take a 2-1 set advantage in the game.
Indiana State could not get any momentum going in the fourth set as Illinois State scored the first three points of the set and dominated the action the rest of the way, rolling to a 25-14 victory.
The Sycamores finished with 46 kills in 176 attacks and a 0.108 hitting percentage while the Redbirds had 55 kills in 162 attacks and a 0.241 hitting percentage. Indiana State lost 24 points to errors while Illinois State lost 16 points to errors.
Indiana State falls to 7-23 overall and 3-13 in the Missouri Valley Conference with the loss. The Sycamores have a week to prepare for their final weekend of the regular as they will host Missouri State on Friday (Nov. 20) and Wichita State on Saturday (Nov. 21) in the ISU Arena. Both games start at 7 p.m. (ET)
Courtesy: ISU Athletics
