The SIU volleyball team (13-6, 4-2) beat Evansville (7-13, 1-5) in four sets (25-19, 15-25, 25-13, 29-27) Saturday night in Evansville, Ind.

Missouri Valley Conference’s most efficient blocker and Saluki sophomore middle hitter Alex Rosignol was sidelined with an undisclosed injury. She has now missed the last three games for the Salukis.

The Salukis’ other two middle hitters, senior Taylor Pippen and junior Mckenzie Dorris, combined to hit 18 kills with 4 errors for a .424 attack efficiency.

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“It’s important that everyone is able to step up and play when we need them to play,” Dorris said. “[Junior Yael Benjamin] says if we don’t have a bench, we don’t have a team.”

The Evansville Purple Aces were ranked ninth out of ten MVC teams in the preseason polls. The only conference win the Purple Aces tallied was against Bradley, who is currently in last place in the MVC.

The fourth set went into extra points to determine a winner. Evansville led at one point in the fourth set 19-13. A kill by sophomore outside hitter Nellie Fredriksson ended the set and match. Junior setter Meg Viggars assisted the final kill, along with 28 others in the match.

“I was able to swing and put the ball where I wanted it to be placed,” Viggars said. “As long as [junior setter Hannah Kaminsky] keeps putting the ball up for us, we’ll keep putting them down.”  

Viggars finished the match with 12 kills on 29 attempts with one error, 12 digs and four blocks.

Sophomore outside hitter Andrea Estrada continued to lead the SIU offense with 15 kills on 33 attempts with three errors, 16 digs and two blocks. Before the match against Evansville, Estrada was fourth in the MVC in kills per set (3.32) and sixth for points per set (3.73)

Five Salukis ended the match with ten or more kills. SIU finished with a .344 attack efficiency.

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At this point in the 2014 season, the Salukis were 10-9 overall and 4-5 in conference play.

“Our athletes have put the work in and we’re another year older,” coach Justin Ingram said. “We needed our depth today — our distribution was key — we just need to improve on the defensive side of the ball.” 

The Salukis play Indiana State at 6 p.m. on Friday in Terre Haute, Ind. 

Evan Jones can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @EvanJones_DE