Despite splitting a pair of road games last weekend, SIUC women’s volleyball coach Sonya Locke feels pretty good heading into the last three games of the season and the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

The spikers lost to Illinois State on Saturday in three straight games 15-6, 15-11 and 16-14. However, SIUC bounced back to beat Bradley on Sunday 15-13, 15-11, 13-15, 12-15 and 15-12.

I would have preferred to come home with two wins, but I’ll settle for the split, Locke said. It’s always good to do better, but first of all we are in the tournament, and second, the coaches picked us to finish sixth we’re not going to finish sixth.

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At 11-7, the Salukis are now in the No. 5 spot in the league and are assured to finish the season there. SIUC was picked to finish sixth in the MVC coaches preseason poll.

In its last several matches, the Salukis have struggled offensively. However, paced by senior outside hitter Heather Herdes’ 31 kills, the spikers were able to generate a solid, consistent offensive attack against Bradley. SIUC had a .300 hitting percentage against Bradley in the five-game match.

It was very nice to see us put together a good hitting performance, Locke said. That (offense) has been our downfall lately. The hitting performance against Bradley is the performance I know we are capable of.

Heather was spreading the offense around very well.

In the loss to ISU, Herdes collected six kills, one less than ISU’s Jill Cole, Herdes’ Shelbyville High School teammate.

Cole said she was surprised that Herdes had one kill less than her in the match.

I don’t think that ever happened in high school, Cole said. Heather is one of the best hitters in our league. She struggled early, but got going in the third game.

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Heading into this seasons MVC tournament, which begins Nov. 17 in Normal, Locke said she feels comfortable with the situation SIUC is in. Providing the standings the same as they are now, SIUC will play Illinois State in the opening round of the tournament.

We’ve solidified the number five spot in the tournament, Locke said. At this point I’m looking for consistency. We’re going to prepare the same way we have all season. We need to improve on our blocking and hopefully we can smooth that out before the season ends.

This team needs to believe they can win and they can win.

SIUC will play host to Evansville on Wednesday and Southeast Missouri State on Saturday in the final home game of the 1995 season.