SIU volleyball lost in ugly fashion Saturday night, falling to the Evansville Purple Aces in straight sets (28-30, 23-25, 13-25) to lose its seventh conference matchup over the last eight games.

The Salukis came into their matchup Saturday against the Purple Aces looking to add to their four conference wins this season and work their way up the conference ladder.

Southern matched up against Evansville Sept. 29 in its fourth conference match, with the Salukis coming out on top in five sets. They looked to do the same Saturday.

The first set looked to be a challenge for Southern as Evansville jumped to a quick 2-0 start on attacking errors from the Salukis.

SIU quickly evened the score up at 4-4 as they put together back-to-back points after forcing a couple of attacking errors from the Purple Aces.

The Salukis looked to pull away with the set after going on a five-point run supported by two kills from senior outside hitter Abby Barrow and junior middle blocker Patience Brown to make the score 9-6.

Southern continued to hold on to its lead as they were able to find another three-point drive sparked by a kill from Brown to make the score 13-9.

Evansville looked to spark a comeback later in the set, managing a three-point run from back-to-back kills and an attacking error to force a timeout from SIU at 19-16.

With the Salukis one point away from closing out the first set, the Purple Aces refused to go down without a fight as they put five straight points to tie the set at 24-24.

The teams went on to trade points back forth until Evansville put together back-to-back points to take a 30-28 win and 1-0 set lead.

The Purple Aces looked to continue their run in the second set as they claimed the first three points in the set on a couple of kills and an attack error to put them ahead 3-0.

SIU immediately answered back as they put up three straight points after a kill by Barrow to tie the game back up at 3-3.

Evansville shut the run down almost immediately as they went on to take four of the next five points to put them ahead of Southern at 7-4.

The Salukis proved that they still had fight in them as they went on to put four straight points on the board sparked by back-to-back kills from freshman opposite hitter Maggie Nedoma to put them ahead 8-7.

Both teams went to trade points back and forth until SIU was able to gain some breathing room by scraping together four straight points to put them ahead 19-16.

Evansville looked to make another late comeback as they were able to put together a two-point run and a three-point run to tie the game up at 23-all forcing a timeout from Southern.

The Purple Aces came out of the timeout and put up back-to-back points to take the second set 25-23 and give them a 2-0 set lead.

Evansville continued to fire on all cylinders as they came into the third set and took seven of the first nine points to earn an early lead on Southern.

The Purple Aces used a four-point run to build onto their lead over SIU 19-11.

The Salukis failed to inch their way back into the game, losing the third set 25-13 to go down in a 3-0 sweep to Evansville.

Brown, Nedoma and Barrow led the team in kills with seven apiece.

Redshirt senior outside hitter Andrea Estrada and freshman Rachel Maguire co-led the team in digs with 11 each on the night.

Sophomore setter Alayna Martin led the team in assists with 18 on the night.

Brown led the Salukis in blocks with five to her name.

The Salukis return to Davies Gym on Monday to take on the Loyola University Chicago Ramblers. First serve is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Sports reporter Dillon Gilliland can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @DillonGilliland.

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