By: Howard Woodard
It was another disappointing weekend for Saluki volleyball (10-12) as they couldn’t pull out a victory in front of their home crowd. They fell to Belmont in four sets who had the worse record (8-13) heading into Friday’s action.
It started off ugly for both sides, but the Salukis went on a 6-0 run to take momentum and rattle off a win in the first set. But the Bruins would take it back and not give it up as it was more of the same from SIU.
They had errors that Belmont capitalized on, they couldn’t get the attacks and breaks to roll their way, and they didn’t lose a set by more than three. Annabelle Sulish and Kelly Franklin had 17 and 15 kills, respectively. Anna Jaworski led the Dawgs in assists with 25, as Ema Stermenska added 18.
Libero Jillian Shaneyfelt had 13 digs, and Jaworski was close behind with 10 to total a double-double. The Murray State game was an extremely tough loss, as it seemed the Dawgs tried to pull out all the stops to scrape across a win. Ava Czarnecki got her first action of the year as the Salukis ran out two liberos with her and Shaneyfelt.
It is unclear when or if Cecilia Bulmahn will return to the team after the loss of her father last week. Head coach Ed Allen switched the two liberos depending on the situation, Shaneyfelt if SIU was serving and Czarnecki if they weren’t. Brinley Burdette subbed in for Franklin to serve several times due to her struggles in that area this year.
The Racers on the other hand, virtually didn’t sub, only playing their six starters and libero for the length of the match. It was one of the better receiving days from SIU as outside hitters Sulish and Franklin led the team in digs with 23 and 15, respectively.
Four different Salukis tallied double digit kills including Sulish and Franklin who both had 12. Middle hitter Larissa Seger led the team in that category with 14 while Eva Krakowski added 11 kills in the middle of the floor.
Krakowski also blocked six attacks, with Seger right behind at five. The match went to five sets as no team won two in a row with the Racers winning the first and the Dawgs winning the fourth in dominant fashion. The final set looked promising as SIU jumped out to an 8-3 lead, Murray State would go score five straight to spark a 12-7 run to steal a win in Davies Gym, which hasn’t been abnormal for visiting teams this season.
The Salukis have a 3-7 record at home this year compared to 7-5 away from Carbondale. SIU will need to go a serious run to make the MVC Tournament with the schedule dwindling down and their 3-8 record in the Valley. The team has lost nine of their last 12 after starting 7-3. They will remain at home this week to face UIC (16-7, 8-3) on Friday, November 1 at 6pm and Valparaiso (14-9, 6-5) on Saturday at 5pm.
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