Volleyball Sweeps Evansville, picks up third conference win of the year
Margherita Giani, left, goes up with fellow teammate Nsia Gittens, right, for block attempt during the Salukis 3-0 win over the University of South Carolina – Upstate on Friday, Sept. 10, 2021 during the Saluki Invitational at the Banterra Center at SIU.
SIU Volleyball (10-7, 3-2 MVC) traveled to Indiana on Friday night to start a weekend road trip. On Friday they beat the Evansville Aces (5-14, 2-3 MVC) 3-0 for their 10th win of the season overall and third MVC win of the year.
The Salukis were led on offense by senior Nataly Garcia. She tallied 14 total kills, making for 17 points for the Salukis. Both of which were team highs. She also marked a .583 hitting percentage, her career high. On defense, it was primarily sophomore Anna Jaworski and freshman Claudia Bobb. Jaworski tallied ten digs, while Bobb wasn’t far behind with seven.
Jaworski also assisted on a lot of offense. She was good for 33 assists throughout the match.
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The dawgs wasted no time in this one to get what they wanted by taking the first six points of set one. At 10-4, SIU traded points with the Aces for a long time, until a 22-15 lead soon drifted into just a 22-20 lead after five points in a row went to Evansville. Luckily kills by sophomore Tatum Tornatta, junior Imani Hartfield, and freshman Ceci Bulmahn helped seal the deal to take the 25-22 set one win.
The Salukis took four of the first five points in set two again before some errors could help the Aces get to just down one at 7-6. A 7-2 run sparked by Hartfield gave SIU a 14-8 lead now, but yet again, the Aces found another gear and turned it into just a 17-16 lead. Luckily for SIU, a ring of errors by the Aces helped them pick the gas up and seal the deal at a 25-19 set 2 win.
A back-and-forth set 3 rang in the Salukis’ favor in a 10-5 lead, which turned into a 17-7 lead after a couple of kills by Garcia. At 20-12, SIU wanted to finish things out strong and Bulmahn helped them do just that with a couple of timely kills to get the set 3 win and sweep the Aces.
The Salukis will be right back in action in Indiana yet again tomorrow when they travel to neighboring school Indiana State in Terre Haute for a matchup against the Sycamores. That game will start at 5 pm.
Sports editor Joseph Bernard can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @Jojobernard2001.
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