Salukis split weekend series

The Salukis conference-losing streak takes a one-game break.
SIU defeated the Bradley Braves 3-1 (23-25, 26-24, 25-23, 25-23) on Friday to snap its four match conference-losing streak. On Saturday, SIU lost 3-1 (25-12, 25-22, 23-25, 25-21) to Northern Iowa allowing the Missouri Valley Conference’s first place team to sweep SIU in the season series.
Outside hitter Jennifer Berwanger said she was happy to get another conference win.
“Any time you get a win, it’s good,” Berwanger said. “I think this weekend gave us a lot of confidence going forward.”
SIU (15-7, 4-7 MVC) opened the weekend against Bradley (9-16, 0-11 MVC) by dropping the first set of the evening 25-23. The Salukis out-hit them .333 to .270 but were still defeated.
SIU led hit percentage in every other set, eventually out-hitting Bradley .277 to .217.
“They took advantage of our little mistakes,” head coach Brenda Winkeler said. “We forget to do the little things and teams come back on us.”
Bradley kept each game close as SIU was never able to win by more than two points, but the Salukis prevailed in the end with a 3-1 victory.
Highlights in the match for SIU included Berwanger getting her 39th career double-double with 16 kills and a match-high 21 digs. Junior Alicia Johnson added a match-high 19 kills. Winkeler said after Friday’s match that the only way to beat Northern Iowa was for SIU to play better as a team than it did against Bradley.
Winkeler’s desire for better team play did not come in the match Saturday against UNI. The Salukis lost the first game 25-12 while being out-hit .257 to -.098.
“We didn’t do the little things in that first set,” Winkeler said. “We weren’t staying on our base, (UNI) was tipping in front of us and we needed to take control and not be afraid to put the ball down.”
In the first game, SIU committed 10 errors and had only six kills in 41 attempts.
SIU bounced back after the first set and played much closer to Northern Iowa over the next sets, out-hitting the Panthers in every set but the last one, where NIU outhit SIU .366 to .295.
“The key for us was staying excited and believing in ourselves,” freshman middle blocker Alysia Mayes said. “As long as we keep our energy up, we’re a very good team.”
Winkeler said she felt the team performed better in the loss against Northern Iowa than it did in the victory against Bradley.
The Salukis had 19 errors against Bradley and 23 errors against UNI.
Berwanger said she thinks this could be a turning point in the season.
“We showed that we could play against the first place team in the conference,” Berwanger said. “This gives us a huge amount of confidence going into our second half.”
With the victory over SIU, NIU has won 18 straight matches dating back to Sept. 2.
SIU goes on the road next weekend to face Indiana State and Illinois State.
Winkeler said playing on the road would not be a big deal for the team.
“I haven’t seen any evidence that we play better at home than we do away,” Winkeler said. “I’m not that worried about going on the road.”

Derek Robbins can be reached at 356-3311 ext. 261.