ISU Survives in MVC Tournament Taking Down UIC in Five Sets

NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State Volleyball staves off elimination by defeating the UIC flames in five sets to advance to the Semi-finals of the MVC tournament.

Despite being out hit, out defended, and out scored on the match, ISU was able to win a thrilling match in the opening round of the MVC tournament against instate rival UIC.

The Redbirds took set number one by the score of 25-21 in a closely contested opening set thanks to some timely offense including back-to-back kills from Khenedi Guest late in the set that grew the Illinois State lead to 4 points and they would not look back from there putting out the Flames in set one.

Sets two and three belonged to the Flames as ISU saw their postseason slipping away right in front of them. UIC won set two by a dozen points and never gave the Redbirds a chance to even sniff the lead scoring the first five points of the set and Illinois state just couldn’t catch up from there. In set three it was more of the same with ISU putting up a fight in this one, leading the set 7-6, before another burst from the Flames ended the Redbird rally and put them one set away from victory.

That’s when ISU came to life, as they’ve done so many times this season trading blows back and forth with the flames and just when it looked like UIC was about to end ISU’s tournament life before it began, a 16-7 Redbird deficit shrunk to 17-15 after a huge Redbird rally led by Ruth Ziegler and storming back to take the set 25-23 and forcing the sudden death 15 point fifth set and following the trend of the match was just as thrilling sets 1-4.

ISU and UIC traded kills back and forth, both teams refusing to give in, but the Redbirds found the opening and ran with it growing their lead to 14-11. The flames roared back and scored two straight putting all the pressure on the Redbirds and Ruth Ziegler answered the call recording her match leading 12^th kill snuffing out the Flames and keeping the Redbirds playoff hopes alive for one more match.

Aida Shadewald scored a season high 20 digs on the match in a dominant effort on defense to go with another double digit kill performance (10). Hannah Reichensperger and Ruth Ziegler shined on defense as well both recording a team high 8 blocks on the night, contributing to an improbable win for the Redbirds.

Illinois State will now pivot to this weekend’s semi-final match when they head to the quad cities to take on the University of Northern Iowa Panthers, in one of ISU’s toughest tasks of the season.

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