MACOMB, Ill. - The Western Illinois volleyball team
cruised to a 2-0 lead and pulled out a thrilling third set victory to sweep
South Dakota State (25-19, 25-17, 29-27) Friday night inside Brophy Hall. The
Fighting Leathernecks (10-10, 3-7 Summit League) put down 49 kills in their third
conference win of the season.
Western Illinois held SDSU (12-11, 4-6 Summit League) to a .169 attack percentage while the Fighting Leathernecks hit at a
.206 clip. Western Illinois is 5-0 during the 2011 campaign when it records a .200-plus
attack percentage.
The Fighting Leathernecks held advantages in kills
(49-40), service aces (6-1) and digs (70-64). The 49 kills is one off the
three-set season high and 70 digs ties a three-set season high.
"We played very well tonight.
We were firing on all cylinders from all of our five hitters so it made
things very easy for (setter) Sarah Fetter," said Western Illinois head coach Kym McKay. "She had a lot of options and she did
a great job of utilizing all of them, which kept the middles on SDSU off balance."
"All five of our hitters established
themselves as offensive threats and that was huge. It is one of the first
matches all year that I think we had that kind of production from all
of our hitters. They all had great swings at times that we needed them.
We allowed our offense to get into a nice rhythm."
Fetter controlled the offense and dished
out 40 assists. She owns eight 40-plus assist efforts this season. Fetter had
15 assists and two kills in the third set, which featured six lead changes.
Freshman Ann Miller picked up her first
double-double since Sept. 30 with 11 kills and 15 digs. Miller also collected
two service aces and two total blocks. She now owns a team-high 11
double-doubles this season.
Junior Katie Hosteng put down a team-high 12 kills for her fifth
double-digit effort of Summit League play. Hosteng, who leads all Leathernecks
with 108 kills during conference action, had five kills on 15 attempts in the
second set.
Senior Cait Egan put together an all-around performance
with eight kills, two service aces and five total blocks. Egan owns 986 career
kills and needs 14 more kills to become the ninth player in program history to reach
1,000 career kills.
Senior Brooke Stittleburg had nine kills for her
second consecutive solid effort off the bench. Stittleburg combined with Egan
for a crucial block in the second set and put down four kills on 10 attempts in the
decisive third set.
Junior Bridget Murphy collected her ninth straight
20-plus dig performance with 25 digs. She had 12 digs in the second set and
owns 12 20-plus dig efforts this season. Murphy also moved past Kim Phillips
(1989-93) into ninth place all-time in program history with 1,092 career digs. Freshman
Bailey Kaloupek compiled a season-high 15 digs.
Western Illinois is back in action Saturday (Oct.
15) when North Dakota State visits Brophy Hall. Janna Deyle had 11 kills and seven
blocks to lead the Bison to a 3-1 win at IUPUI Friday night. NDSU improved to
15-7 overall and 8-2 in The Summit League with the victory.
