MVC Opening Weekend: Redbirds Learn from Loss, Rally for Homecoming Victory

NORMAL, Ill. – After much anticipation and excitement for Illinois State Redbird volleyball (6-9) to begin MVC play this past weekend, the birds were grounded by Murray State on Friday evening.

Despite the Redbirds leading the match in kills (61-58) errors and missed opportunities were the achilles heel for ISU on the day, as they held one of their highest error totals of the season with 28 in the match to Murray States 19, most of their errors coming in the 3^rd set in which the redbird were able to win to avoid the sweep at home.

“I thought we responded, but we responded in relief that we didn’t get swept. Not like we responded to win the match,” said head coach, Allie Matters.

It all began for the Redbirds in the first set, in which Illinois State led by 5 and 2 separate points in the match, but were unable to hold onto those lead both times as the Racers took a deflating 25-22 first set, and that seemed to set the tone for the rest of the night.

When asked about the adjustments the team made at halftime that helped them win the third set, Coach Matters added “I thought Murray State finally started to make some errors… I thought we finally started to slow down their offense a little bit… really didn’t have an option the first two sets. There were a lot of errors that happened.”

A bright spot in the match was the continued high level of play from the freshman Redbirds on the court. Ruth Ziegler stuck out in the match collecting 12 kills o the day, her highest total of the season. Not far behind was Khenedi Guest, who continues to shine for the Birds, and is the reigning MVC newcomer of the week, with a well rounded 10 kill, 7 block performance on the night.

Veteran Junior Aida Shadewald commented post-match, on the ability of the team to continue to fight despite being down in the match, “There’s a feeling I’m always trying to get to and get the team to feel, to just always be fighting for that next point. So it’s a lot of that and just scrappy and grittiness.”

After the loss Friday the Redbirds were able to bounce back and win a thriller on homecoming night in 5 sets against Belmont.a In the match, Caitlyn Little broke out with a staggering 20 kills in the match, accounting for almost half of the Redbird kills alone on the evening.

ISU will look ahead now to this weekend, as they will head over to Missouri State, as they try to find more consistency and rhythm as the volleyball season really begins to ramp up.