Roberson makes history as SIU beats Evansville
September 20, 2009
Evansville was only able to delay the Salukis 11-match winning streak.
SIU’s volleyball team defeated Evansville 3-1 (22-25, 25-20, 25-16, 25-18) Saturday after the match was postponed Friday because of a scheduling conflict with the officials. The delay failed to slow down senior middle blocker Chandra Roberson.
Roberson broke the all-time block assists record for SIU.’ She recorded three block assists in the match, giving her 334 in her career.
Advertisement
‘ ‘It felt amazing, I’m glad that I finally got it,’ Roberson said. ‘I knew that I needed about three, then I got my first two and it took me a while to get the last one. So there is a little sigh of relief.’
Roberson hit a team-best .526 with 11 kills, two service aces, two solo blocks and three block assists.
Roberson’s teammates shared in the excitement of the record-setting day.
‘I was extremely excited for her, the past couple of games we have been counting down,’ said junior outside hitter Jennifer Berwanger. ‘I told her I really wanted to be the one who was up there with her when she broke it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. I am happy that she can get recognized for what a great player she is.’
Berwanger got her eighth straight double-double in the victory with 16 kills and 10 digs.
SIU (11-0, 1-0) fell in the first set 25-22 but came back to win a close second set, 25-20. SIU dominated the last two sets, outscoring Evansville (6-5, 0-1) 50-34.
‘We knew that we had to stay mentally focused and positive and bring energy to the place,’ Berwanger said. ‘We knew that no matter what happened, we had to bring the energy to the room. Through the first game it was kind of dead, but the energy picked up and so did we.’
Advertisement*
Berwanger said the win would show other teams in the conference that SIU is better than last year and is a threat.
‘I hope this makes teams nervous to play us, because anything can happen,’ Berwanger said.
Junior right side hitter Alicia Johnson recorded her second straight double-double of the season while freshman setter Rachael Brown now has 452 of the team’s 534 assists.
‘They can take a lot of pressure off of Jen,’ said head coach Brenda Winkeler. ‘It’s a whole different element not just relying on one player. I think that is the big difference between this year’s team and last year’s team. We are just very deep.’
SIU returns to action at Northern Iowa (11-2, 2-0) Friday.
Advertisement