CARBONDALE, Ill. - Western Illinois senior Monique Houston led the Westerwinds in attacks with a season-best 16 kills while Emily Harrison had her fifth double-digit kill game with a season-best 11, but it wasn't enough as Southern Illinois defeated Western Illinois in four sets (21-25, 25-23, 20-25, 20-25), Friday.

Houston's 16 kills moves her to 902 in her career and the No. 8 spot in the Western Illinois record books for career kills. The Salukis (6-1) took the first set and the Westerwinds (3-6) tied the match at 1-1 a second set victory before dropping the final two. The second-set win was the first time Western took a game from Southern since the 1999 season.

"Both Mo and Em took big swings all night that kept us competitive against a veteran Saluki team," Western Illinois head coach Kym McKay said. "It was promising to see us play at a higher level, but we still need to improve on sustaining that level throughout the entire 25 points of a game."

Down 2-1 in the match, Sarah Trimpe served up her fourth ace (season best) of the match to tie the set at 7-7. The teams tied up the set two more times until 9-9 when Southern Illinois took the final lead of the match and defeated the Westerwinds 25-20.

A back row kill and an ace by Houston along with a Saluki rotation error in between gave Western Illinois the first lead of the set at 12-11. The teams traded points with four more ties until Southern went up two points at 20-18. Trimpe served up back-to-back aces for a tied set (20-20). Western took the lead one more time (21-20) before Southern tied it up a point later and closed out the set at 25-22.

The Salukis jumped out to an early 9-3 lead in the second set. Western came back from the six-point deficit to tie the set at 13-13 and a Megan Toczek kill gave the Westerwinds the first lead of the set (14-13). The lead switched back and forth between teams until the seventh and final tie at 21-21. Western won the set, 25-23, and tied the match at 1-1.

The third set began very much like the second, with Southern Illinois jumping out to an early 6-0 lead (11-5) and the Westerwinds tying it up at 16-16 with the final tie at 17-17, however this set didn't end in the Westerwinds favor as the Salukis defeated Western, 25-20.

As a team the Westerwinds had a season-best 10 service aces in comparison to the Salukis' four.

"Southern is a tremendous serving team," McKay said. "I am impressed with our passers' (Elise Crnjak, Ellen Miller, Lindsay Muehlbauer and Brooke Stittleburg) abilities to hold Southern below their season average of aces per set. The players executed well on assistant coach Steve Williams' serving strategies, which helped produce aces that were well over our average."

The Westerwinds return to Davies Gym for a 10 a.m. match against Southeast Missouri State and a 5 p.m. match against Arkansas State, Saturday.