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Salukis end season with losses to Drake, Creighton

Same problems plague SIU in final matches

Amanda Whitlock ~ Daily Egyptian Sophomore Marissa Washington goes for the kill as a Creighton player jumps in the air and reaches for the ball.

After spending much of the 2003 season on a rollercoaster, the SIU volleyball team continued its up-and-down play in the final weekend of the regular season.

The Dawgs pulled out game-one victories over visiting Drake (11-21, 3-15 Missouri Valley Conference) and Creighton (12-18, 9-9) on Nov. 21 to 22 but failed to put together any consistency from that point on in losing both matches 3-1 to conclude the year on a sour note.

Losing by scores of 30-22, 21-30, 20-30 and 30-32 to Drake and 30-25, 23-30, 16-30 and 21-30 to Creighton, SIU fell short of its goal of winning two consecutive matches for the first time all season, just one gauge of how inconsistent the Dawgs have been.

More indicators could be seen in the final weekend of play.

The Salukis (7-23, 3-15) hit .472 in the game-one victory over the Bulldogs and .342 in the game-one win against the Bluejays, but the hitting percentages grew progressively worse from then on as SIU lost control of the ball and both matches in similar fashion.

"We can work on ball control all we want, but if we can't control it in the matches then it's going to get the best of us," SIU head coach Sonya Locke said, "and it did."

A disappointing final weekend of the season put an end to what was an altogether disappointing season for the Salukis.

Despite having one of the youngest teams in the MVC with 12 freshmen and 13 newcomers in all - a number of whom contributed greatly - the bar was still set high by Locke and her team.

The goal, as it is every season, was to make the Missouri Valley Conference tournament. But a wretched start faced the Dawgs with a 2-12 record in league play, and with only five matches left, they had the daunting task of winning out to assure a second consecutive trip to the exclusive field of six.

A 3-0 loss at Illinois State and a 1-4 finish to conclude the season crushed all of the team's goals of making the tournament.

The taste of defeat will serve as a disappointing yet motivating factor for the core of next year's team.

"I think we're going to be good," said sophomore middle blocker Marissa Washington, who ended the season with a career-high .294 overall hitting percentage. "We just need to know that you have to come out and play to win in not just one game but all three games or all five games."

Senior Kelly Harman tallied her 10th double-double of the season (12 kills, 12 digs) in her final match as a Saluki against Creighton Saturday, but it wasn't enough to go out with a victory.

The Salukis' lone senior did all she could to help the cause, but the combination of Creighton's Leah Ratzlaff and Ashley Williams were too much to handle.

The duo combined for 47 of the Bluejays' 72 kills, with both compiling hitting percentages of well over .350.

"We knew who their players were, and we knew who we had to stop," Harman said. "But we just didn't get the job done."

The Salukis will have a brief break from volleyball, but next year starts as soon as the spring semester begins. With the first tournament of the spring season set for March 20, the Dawgs have a lot of work to do in preparation for the seasons to come.

And with her experience of watching players blossom in the off-season, Locke is certain the improvements will begin to show immediately.

"They all grow after their first spring season," Locke said. "It never fails."