By WJBC Staff
PEORIA – The Illinois State volleyball team scored the first 10 points of the match Friday against Bradley and never looked back, as the Redbirds swept the Braves 3-0 at Renaissance Coliseum. ISU won by scores of 25-13, 25-20 and 25-19 to snap a three-match losing skid.
The Redbirds (13-9, 6-4 MVC) were led by Aly Dawson and Lexi Varga, with 12 and 11 kills, respectively. Jacqueline Twing dished out a team-best 27 assists, while Courtney Pence recorded 15 digs for the Redbirds in the sweep over Bradley (6-15, 1-9 MVC).
“We were able to execute well tonight on offense, despite strong defensive play by Bradley,” head coach Melissa Myers said. “Other than a few unforced errors in the third set, we were pretty efficient. This was also one of our strongest blocking performances of the season and that will be important as we face Loyola tomorrow night. Ella Francis had a great match, both on offense and with two big blocks late in the third set that stopped any comeback by Bradley.”
The Redbirds wasted little time jumping out to an early lead in the first set, scoring the first 10 points of the game to jump out to a 10-0 lead. Ali Line scored the first two points on kills and then had a hand in scoring the next two on blocks. The lead grew to as many at 14 points at 17-3 after an attack error by Bradley and stayed at 14 points at 20-6 after another hitting error by BU. The Braves rallied back to cut the deficit to 23-12, but the Redbirds closed it out on Jaelyn Keene kill to take the set 25-13.
Line started the second set much like the first with two-straight kills and Varga added one of her own to stake the Redbirds to a quick 3-0 lead. The Braves scored six of the next seven points to take a 6-4 lead over the Redbirds, but the lead would not last long as five-straight points from ISU gave the Redbirds the advantage at 9-6. Bradley did not back down, as a kill by Jami Livaudais trimmed the Redbird lead to one at 11-10, and kept the score close at 21-20, before the Redbirds scored the final four point of the set to take a 2-0 lead.
The third set was much closer, as neither team held more than a two-point lead when the Redbirds held a 14-12 advantage. Back-to-back hitting errors by Livaudais widened the ISU lead to four points at 16-12, but once again the Braves fought back to trim the Redbird lead to one at 19-18. Consecutive kills by Francis and a pair of hitting errors by Bradley made the score 23-18, before Bradley called a timeout. A kill by Bradley’s Erica Haslag out of the break trimmed the deficit back to four points, but back-to-back kills by Dawson and Keene closed out the set and the sweep for the Redbirds.
The Illinois weekend road swing continues for the Redbirds Saturday at Loyola at 7 p.m. Links for live audio and stats can be found at GoRedbirds.com, and fans can follow @RedbirdVB on Twitter for live updates.
