The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks, The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."

SIU losses weekend matches, control of final tourney spot

This is not how Erica Miller and Carrie Shephard wanted to say goodbye to Davies Gymnasium.

In the final home matches in their careers, the two seniors watched as the Salukis lost two straight matches, control of sixth place and quite possibly a Missouri Valley Conference Tournament berth.

SIU (9-19, 6-10) entered last weekend with a one-match lead in the sixth and final conference tournament spot, but is now in a three-way tie with Indiana State and Evansville after losing to the Sycamores and Illinois State.

The Salukis overcame a 24-27 deficit in game one against Indiana State with a Shephard kill, three Sycamore errors and two aces by Holly Marita to take a 1-0 lead.

But Indiana State (10-14, 6-10) regrouped and reeled off three straight wins, dropping the Salukis 28-30, 30-28, 30-23 and 30-28.

With the win, Indiana State swept the season series with SIU, and the Salukis now find themselves in a precarious situation.

Should the Sycamores and Salukis end the season in a sixth-place tie this weekend, Indiana State would automatically get in the conference tournament because its season series sweep gives it control of the tiebreaker.

"This weekend was pretty key for us," Miller said. "The best we can do is win out from here and hope that some other teams lose."

Illinois State came to Carbondale Saturday, and knocked the Salukis even further off course sweeping SIU 30-19, 30-22, 30-16.

The Redbirds never hit below .300 for the match, finishing with a .327 attack percentage, had 10 aces and didn't allow a single Saluki ace.

After combining for 16 kills and hitting just .026 and .033 respectively, the Salukis outside hitters - Jené Pulliam and Jaime Hinsenkamp - continued to struggle in Saturday's match with only 10 kills between them. Pulliam hit -.100, while Hinsenkamp finished with a .143 attack percentage.

"We have to have a balanced attack and we didn't have that," said SIU head coach Sonya Locke.

The lone bright spots for SIU last weekend were Shephard, Marita and Johannah Yutzy.

Shephard and Marita each posted double-doubles Friday. Shephard had 11 kills and 10 digs, while Marita recorded her 12th double-double of the season with 38 assists and a career-high 20 digs.

Yutzy hit .250 against Illinois State with six kills and just three errors. She also added four digs and four blocks.

SIU's battle for the last tourney spot is with Indiana State, because it swept the season series with Evansville and holds the tiebreaker over the Purple Aces.

The door to the postseason tournament has not shut on the Salukis, but SIU will have to knock off the two best teams in the Valley - Wichita State and Southwest Missouri State - on the road.

"We just want to put together our best efforts at this point, and see what happens," Locke said.

SIU also needs some help from Drake and Creighton, who play at Indiana State this weekend.

Creighton solidified a MVC Tournament spot with a win against Bradley last weekend, and swept the Sycamores Sept. 17.

Drake dropped its 14th straight match to Northern Iowa last weekend and has just one conference win under its belt. Indiana State swept the Bulldogs in the first meeting between the two teams.

"It's always been if we come to play and if we don't," Miller said. "I think we're more than capable of beating any team in the conference.

"But this weekend, we just didn't fight hard enough."