CARBONDALE, Ill. – Missouri State nearly completed a reverse sweep of Southern Illinois Thursday in the Missouri Valley Conference opener for both schools, but eventually lost the fifth set to the Salukis at Davies Gym in a two-hour, 49-minute marathon.
After dropping the first two sets, the Bears (5-6) roared back to force a fifth, but never led in the final period as SIU (7-3) won by set scores of 25-15, 26-24, 22-25, 23-25, 15-12.
Maddy Bushnell had a season-high 15 kills for the Bears and Lexi Weinberg hit .346 with a career-best 12 kills in an otherwise defensive battle in which both clubs hit below .170. Grace Smith added a career-best nine kills and Rilynn Finley had nine as well. Finley surpassed 100 kills on the season in what was her ninth career match, making her the third-quickest freshman in school history to reach triple digits behind teammate Aniya Joseph (7) and Lily Johnson (8).
Morgan Sprague collected her eighth double-double with 42 assists and 18 digs, Kate Owen had 20 digs, and Riley Ourth tallied a career-high 10 digs for the Bears.
Facing a 2-0 deficit, the Bears steadily grew their lead to 17-10 in the third set and withstood a late 5-0 SIU run to hold on and extend the match. MoState then jumped ahead 11-6 in the fourth set and the Salukis served for the tie on eight separate occasions but never evened the score. Finley’s fifth kill of the set provided the final point and the Bears had 18 winners in the period.
The Salukis grabbed 4-1 lead in the fifth and extended it to 13-8 before one last rally from the Bears. MSU scored the next four points, the last two on a pair of Brooke Eslinger’s career-high four aces, but SIU righted the ship and scored twice for the victory.
SIU hit .342 in the opening set and owned a 17-10 kill advantage, then overcome a 20-16 MSU lead in the second for the 2-0 match lead.
The Bears stay in Carbondale to face SEMO at noon on Friday.
#GoBears
