Redbirds Show Fight, but Drop Back-to-Back Home Matches to Drake and SIU

IMAGE COURTESY OF REDBIRD ATHLETICS

NORMAL, Ill. – Despite a strong effort from Illinois State, the visiting Drake Bulldogs came out on top Friday night in straight sets (25-15, 25-22, 25-22).

Drake set the tone early, jumping ahead in the opening frame and never looking back. The second set turned into a battle with 11 ties and four lead changes, before the Bulldogs closed it out late. ISU opened the third with a 6-0 run and led by as many as five, but Drake rallied again to complete the sweep.

The Bulldogs’ steady attack and late-set execution proved decisive, while Caitlyn Little and Aida Shadewald paced the Redbirds with seven kills apiece. Arianna Rossi anchored the defense with 20 digs, and Ella Craggs recorded 25 assists and her sixth double-double of the season.

Illinois State looked to rebound on Saturday when they hosted Southern Illinois for Homecoming.

Match number two of the weekend saw the struggling Southern Illinois University Saluki’s come to town and Illinois State was again no match for their opponents.

ISU was swept, this time in a much closer and frustrating affair than the previous night. ISU led at one point in all three sets of the match but was unable to hold onto a lead seeing SIU answer back each and every time.

The Redbirds managed to improve on offense in this match in terms of hitting percentage improving to .163 on the match after the abysmal .055 against drake. Despite that ISU still struggled to limit their own mistakes tallying another 25 errors on the match to the Saluki’s 14, and while they never amassed more than six errors in a set Illinois State never had less than seven, with double digit errors in set number one.

Defensively ISU was able to limit some aspects of the SIU offense holding them to a .211 hitting percentage as a team, but it was the Annabelle Sulish show for Southern Illinois as she hit a staggering .560 hitting percentage with 14 kills and no errors in a dominant performance.

Illinois State volleyball staff and players were unavailable for comment after the match.

It does not get any easier for Illinois State coming up, with a road trip that sees stops against the MVC’s best in Northern Iowa and a rematch with the Drake Bulldogs. With the MVC tournament less than a month away this ISU team is searching for answers, and wins with little time to spare.

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