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Salukis outlast Bradley, but fall to UNI

No one wanted to talk about the magnitude of this Friday's match with Indiana State, preferring to redirect attention to their current opponents.

But the Salukis have no choice now.

An SIU win and two Indiana State losses have pushed the Salukis into a one-match lead for sixth place in the Missouri Valley Conference, and a showdown with the Sycamores that could seal one team's post-season fate.

SIU (9-17, 6-8) defeated Bradley 31-33, 30-25, 23-30, 30-18, 15-9 Friday for just the second time in six years at the Robertson Memorial Field House.

The Salukis battled back from a 2-1 deficit to force a fifth game, where they once again found themselves in a hole.

SIU trailed the Braves 6-4 before tying the game at seven, and taking an 8-7 lead on a Bradley error. A Haley Hann and Marissa Washington block increased the lead to 9-7 as the Salukis went on to score six of the final eight points.

"We've been down before, and we've come back," said SIU head coach Sonya Locke. "It's something that I know our players are capable of."

The sophomore tandem of Hann and Jené Pulliam led the Saluki offense. Pulliam had a team-high 19 kills and hit .436, while Hann recorded 17 kills with a .333 attack percentage.

Washington and Holly Marita each posted double-doubles. Washington accumulated 12 kills and 10 digs. Marita had 13 digs and dished out 58 assists for her 11th double-double of the season.

SIU took its newly acquired two-match win streak to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to take on Northern Iowa, which was swept on back-to-back nights last weekend for the first time in school history.

Unfortunately for the Salukis, the Panthers showed no aftereffects Saturday.

Northern Iowa swept SIU 30-25, 30-17, 30-17 in front of a home crowd of 1,268 and remained undefeated against SIU at the West Gym.

SIU hung with the Panthers in game one, swapping leads until an 18-18 deadlock. Northern Iowa led 25-20 before a pair of Saluki kills and Panther errors brought the Salukis to within one point.

But that would be as close as SIU would get. Two kills by Shari Vermeer and three Saluki errors clinched the Panthers' victory.

"I was disappointed that we didn't at least win that first game," Locke said. "I thought that we were playing well enough to get it done, but we made a couple errors that made the difference."

Locke rotated the Saluki lineup after game one to create different match-ups, but the switch didn't help.

Northern Iowa shot out to leads of 21-9 and 21-6 in games two and three behind Vermeer and Rachel Tink who combined for 29 of the Panthers 50 kills.

"Our passing broke down in games two and three," Locke said. "We didn't play very much defense in game two. "We got a little better in game three, but obviously it wasn't enough to pull out a game." The loss leaves the Salukis with a one-match lead over Indiana State and Evansville for the sixth spot in the Valley.

Evansville (12-15, 5-9) was swept by Northern Iowa Friday, and handed Bradley its sixth straight loss Saturday. SIU swept its season series with Evansville and holds the tiebreaker over the Purple Aces should the two teams wind up in a sixth-place tie at the end of the season.

Indiana State (9-15, 5-9) was swept at home by Southwest Missouri State and Wichita State.

The Salukis host Indiana State and Illinois State this weekend in their final home matches of the season.

Whether or not the Salukis advance to the MVC Tournament is largely dependent on the outcome of Friday's contest with the Sycamores.

Indiana State defeated the Salukis 3-1 Oct. 16 in Terre Haute, Ind., but a Saluki win Friday will force a tiebreaker situation if the two teams finish the season in a sixth-place tie.

"We're in a situation where we could be in a tie with them or Evansville, and we're just taking it one step at a time," Locke said.

"Every match from now on is very important."