SIU volleyball was able to get back to its winning ways at home sweeping Bradley in three sets.

The Salukis lost their first game this season at Davies Gym against Loyola on Friday, and the team was not happy about it.

“Coming off a loss it’s about how we performed, and we weren’t happy with how we performed,” SIU coach Justin Ingram said. “Being able to bounce back and perform better was important to us so it was good to do that and get the win.”

Junior outside hitters Abby Barrow (14) and Nellie Fredriksson (11) were the only Salukis with double-digit kills.

This is Barrow’s second game in a row leading the Salukis in kills and she said she felt as if she needed to step up her game after the loss.

“Me and Andrea [Estrada] weren’t producing last game against Loyola,” Barrow said. “Me and her talked about how we need to step it up for the team because protecting our home is important to us.”

SIU (18-9, 9-4 Missouri Valley Conference) took care of Bradley in the first set winning 25-16.

Bradley (7-17, 2-11 MVC) couldn’t handle the Salukis’ fast-paced style of play as SIU had a .333 hitting percentage and Bradley could only post .114.

SIU played great defense all night as it kept the Braves’ hitting percentage to .094 on the match.

Sophomore outside hitter Erica Haslag and senior middle blocker Kelsey Cave led Bradley with nine and seven kills, respectively.

The Salukis took a commanding 17-9 lead in the second set that Bradley could not come back from.

SIU put on a hitting spectacle in the set posting a .500 hit percentage and going 12-12 on its side-out opportunities. Eventually, SIU would win the set 25-12.

The Salukis scored seven straight points before Bradley could respond in the third set.

Nothing went right for the Braves, indicated by their .000 hit percentage in the set.

Bradley could not recover and dropped the third and final set 25-17.

“This is our castle, we need to protect it,” Fredriksson said. “Having someone come in yesterday and win over us isn’t acceptable, we came out today and showed no one beats us in our home.”

The Salukis will try to keep up their momentum when they take on Illinois State at 7 p.m. Friday in Normal.

Staff writer Jonathan Thompson can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @TheReal_Jt3.

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