DAYTON, Ohio – The Illinois State volleyball team won two matches, the second of which gave head coach the 300th win of her collegiate coaching career, Saturday at the Flyer Invitational at the Frericks Center.
Illinois State scored a 3-2 win over Jacksonville early, before earning a 3-1 victory over Eastern Michigan Saturday afternoon. Illinois State defeated Jacksonville by scores of 19-25, 25-18, 23-25, 27-25, 15-5, and Eastern Michigan by scores of 17-25, 25-17, 25-13, 25-18.
“The team dug deep today and found a way to get better, finishing our non-conference schedule strong,” Myers said. “We need to use the next couple of days to recover and get ready for the start of conference play.”
Illinois State vs. Jacksonville
Illinois State started the day with a five-set win over Jacksonville as Ashley Rosch tallied a career-high 27 kills. Ali Line added nine blocks – the most by a Redbird this season – while Jacqueline Twing dished out a career-high 50 assists.
Jaelyn Keene added 10 kills, and Aly Dawson and Lexi Varga chipped in 10 and 11, respectively. Courtney Pence led the Redbirds from the back row with a team-high 19 digs.
Jacksonville won a back-and-forth first set against thanks to a late run. With the score tied at 18-18, the Dolphins closed with a 7-1 binge to take the first set.
Illinois State bounced back to win the second set, pulling away midway through the set with a 7-2 run. Jacksonville regained the lead, however, by winning a very close third set, finishing the set on a 4-2 run to break a 21-all tie.
But the Redbirds forced a fifth set by winning an even closer fourth set. The Redbirds fought off a match point with a kill from Rosch, and won the set moments later on back-to-back kills from Varga and Twing.
Illinois State then carried that momentum into the fifth set, using separate runs of four and five points to get to a match point. Varga sealed the win with her 11th kill of the match.
Illinois State vs. Eastern Michigan
The Redbirds bounced back from losing the first set to win the next three and claim their second win of the day Saturday.
Rosch led Illinois State with a match-high 14 kills, while Varga added 10 more. Dawson and Keene chipped in nine each. Twing tallied 26 assists and Pence registered 21 digs.
Eastern Michigan won a first set that was close early, although the Eagles never trailed. Eastern Michigan broke a 7-7 tie by scoring nine of the next 12 points en route to winning the first set.
The Eagles ran out to another lead early in the second set before the Redbirds used a 7-1 run to take control. A six-point run later in the set, which featured a pair of Rosch aces, helped the Redbirds pull away and even the match at one set apiece.
The Redbirds used a 5-0 run early and a 6-0 run late to win a third set, in which they never trailed. Illinois State never trailed in the fourth set, either, but had to finish strong. Eastern Michigan cut the lead to one point at 16-15 before the Redbirds finished on a 9-3 rally.
The Redbirds are back in action next weekend in their first Missouri Valley Conference matches of the season. Illinois State will travel to Missouri State Friday and Wichita State Saturday. Both matches will be broadcast on ESPN3. Links for live audio, video and state can be found at GoRedbirds.com, and fans can receive live updates from all Illinois State matches this season by following @RedbirdVB on Twitter.
