Saluki outside hitter Marlo Moreland killed any chance Bradley University had of beating SIUC’s volleyball team Saturday night in Davies Gymnasium literally.

Thanks in part to Moreland’s offensive attack, SIUC beat the Lady Braves in 4 games 7-15, 15-11, 15-10, 15-10 to improve to 7-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference. In her first start of the season, the freshman from Lancaster, Tex., led the Saluki attack with 18 kills.

Although somewhat surprised, Moreland said she was happy to get the start and hopes her performance Saturday will provide her with more opportunities to start in the future.

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I’m very glad that I did a good job tonight, Moreland said. I hope I get more chances to start.

Despite Bradley’s 3-5 record in league action, the spikers were somewhat surprised at their aggressiveness on the court. Despite losing the match, Bradley’s Jenny Pavlas added 26 kills of her own.

We should have beat them in three games, Moreland said. We had a lot of opportunities to put them away, but we missed a lot of serves.

The spikers committed seven service errors in the first game against Bradley.

After we lost the first game, coach Locke told us we did a good job but we shouldn’t let anyone come into our house and let anyone be more aggressive than we are, Moreland said.

Locke said Moreland’s chances at starting in the future depends on whether or not she remains consistent on the court.

It’s all up to her. We need player’s that are consistent on the court, Locke said. If she stays consistent in practice, you will see more of her, but that is up to her.

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Service errors plagued SIUC Friday night, as the Salukis fell to Illinois State in four games, 13-15, 15-6, 13-15 and 9-15. The spikers committed a season-high17 service errors which helped pace ISU’s victory. The win allowed ISU to take over sole possession of third place in the MVC.

We could not serve. We did not give ourselves any opportunities, Locke said. I don’t want to turn it into a positive for ISU because it’s a negative on our side.

Locke said she cannot do anything to improve her teams serving. She said it is something each individual has to work on.

Although the league race has reached the midway point, Locke said it is still too early to tell where SIUC stands in the Valley race.

I’m glad to be where we are at, Locke said. I’d rather be here versus at the bottom.

It’s too tight to tell right now how the rest of the season will go. Every team is going to get better as we go along so we can’t expect the standings to stay the same.

SIUC takes on Arkansas State Tuesday before hosting Creighton and Wichita State next weekend.