Salukis sweep Evansville 3-0 to start weekend road trip
Evansville, Ind. —The Southern Illinois volleyball team started its weekend road trip with a 3-0 (25-22, 25-19, 25-18) sweep over the Evansville Purple Aces. With the win, the Salukis improved to 10-7 (3-2 MVC) and earned their first Valley sweep of the season.
The Salukis started off hot, scoring the first five points of the match and forcing Evansville to take an early timeout. The Salukis would go on to lead the rest of the first frame paced by the Evansville native Tatum Tornatta who got the Salukis going early with six kills on just seven attempts in the first set. Tornatta finished the night with 11 kills, totaling 200 now on the season to lead SIU.
Southern never trailed throughout all three sets of the match and was only tied with Evansville once at 1-1 during the second set. The Purple Aces made a few runs in the second but SIU was able to answer each time with a run of its own. The Salukis finished the frame strong scoring the final three points with Anna Jaworski at the service line.
Senior Natalie Garcia took over for the Salukis in the third set finishing with six kills to help the Purple Aces away. Garcia totaled 14 kills for SIU while hitting at a career-high .583 and also serving up a season-high three aces.
Freshmen Ceci Bulmahn and Brinley Burdette led the Salukis defense at the net each recording three blocks on the night. Bulmahn also tallied 11 aces to go along with her defensive effort.
SIU continued to stack up aces as it finished with eight on the night and continued to lead the Valley with 122 on the season while averaging 1.91 per set. Natalie Garcia (3), Bailey Neuberger (2), Anna Jaworski, Claudia Bobband Annabelle Sulish all recorded one or more in the win. Jaworski also led SIU with 33 assists and currently averages 10.79 assists per set, second in the Valley.
The Salukis recorded their second-highest hitting percentage (.396) of the season and their highest in conference play so far.
SIU heads to Terre Haute to take on the Sycamores Oct. 8, Saturday with first serve set for 5 pm
Keep up with all the latest news and information on the Salukis by following the team on Twitter at @SIU_Volleyball, on Instagram at @SIU_Volleyball and on Facebook at Facebook.com/SalukiVolleyball. Fans can also download the “Salukis” Mobile App on the App Store or Google Play Store.
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