Volleyball Downs Southern Illinois, 3-1

Friday, September 20

Cookeville, Tenn.

4:00 PM CT

Middle Tennessee

4-7

Southern Illinois

6-6

Southern Illinois

Middle Tennessee

9/20/2019 7:16:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score Box Score

By: @MTAthletics

COOKEVILLE, Tenn.—The Middle Tennessee volleyball team defeated Southern Illinois in four sets by scores of 27-25, 25-23, 11-25, 25-18. The Blue Raiders improve to 4-7 on the season, while the Salukis fall to 6-6 overall.

Urte Neimantaite led the team attacks with a total 16 kills on the match. Dora Peonia recorded her sixth double-double of the season with 11 kills and 16 digs. Freshman Kayla Henley also tallied a double-double, the second of her career, with 11 kills and 14 digs. Taylor Hammill dished out 40 assists and 15 digs to record her fifth double-double on the year. Senior Bri Tankesley recorded a season-high 24 digs and the Blue Raiders out-blocked the Salukis 11.0 to 10.0.

Set-By-Set
Southern Illinois got off to a 3-0 lead in set one, and continued to have an 8-5 lead before the Blue Raiders went on a 5-0 run to take over, 10-8. SIU went on a 3-0 run to take back the lead, but a kill from Neimantaite and a Saluki attacking error gave MT a 12-11 lead. The Blue Raiders took a bigger, 22-17 lead an Amalie Jorgensen kill, but the Salukis tied it up at 24-24. MT then went on a 3-0 run, that included back-to-back kills from Neimantaite and Kayla Henley, to claim the set, 27-25.

The Blue Raiders took a 6-0 lead to start set two before the Salukis scored one point. MT continued to an 8-1 lead after back-to-back SIU attacking errors. A back row kill from Samira Lawson Body brought the Blue Raiders to a 10-4 lead, followed by an SIU attacking error and kill from Neimantaite, 12-4. The Salukis went on a 4-0 run to come within four. MT held on to the lead until SIU tied it up at 20-20 with a kill, but the Blue Raiders eventually broke off and claimed the set, 25-23 with a Henley kill.

In set three, MT got to a 2-0 start, but the Salukis took an 11-7 lead after a 6-0 run. They went on another 4-0 run to bring it to 15-8, and Neimantaite broke it up with a kill. However, SIU went on another run to take the set, 25-11.

MT got to 4-0 in set four before the Salukis scored two straight. At 4-2, Jorgensen and Neimantaite had kills to further the Blue Raider lead to 6-2, but SIU went on a 5-0 run to take a 7-6 lead. SIU then made three errors to give MT the lead, which it kept the rest of the set. The Blue Raiders clenched set four, 25-28 and the match with a kill by Henley.

Crawford's Comments
On the team's overall performance…

"Tonight was a complete team victory. Everybody played. It was not our most efficient performance, but games like that where you are struggling to pass and you have your ups and downs, those are the games that make you better as a team. It wasn't a pretty win, it was an ugly win, but it definitely made us better as a volleyball team."

On the team statistics that stood out…

"We were strongest in blocking tonight. We had about two and a half blocks per set and we dug some really nice balls tonight. Passing broke down. It's a really big gym, so there's lots of airflow making it tougher to pass because the ball is moving off the serve, but overall our defense and our blocking is what gave us the opportunity to get transition swings for our offense."

Final comments...

"I think the team as a whole was what won that match. It wasn't just one person that was statistically great. The team got it done."

Team Notes

Dora Peonia has led the team attacks on four occasions and has recorded six double-doubles on the season.
Urte Neimantaite dished out a career-high 17 kills on two occasions and has one double-double. She has also led the team attacks on five occasions.
Taylor Hammill is 246 assists away from hitting the 2,000 assists mark. She has also recorded five double-doubles this season.
Hammill has a season-high 52 assists and 18 digs.
Bri Tankesley is 118 digs away from the 1,000 digs mark with 882 total. She also recorded a career-high four aces against Alabama A&M and a season-high 24 digs against Southern Illinois.
Marley Banton has a team-high 16 aces on the season.
Amalie Jorgensen leads the team in blocks with 33.0.

Up Next
The Blue Raiders continue into day two of the Golden Eagle Invitational and take on two more opponents Saturday. They face Western Illinois at 12:30 p.m. and host Tennessee Tech at 7:30 p.m. Live stats will be available for both matches and the Tennessee Tech match will be live streamed.

Keep up with Blue Raider Volleyball online: Middle Tennessee Blue Raider Volleyball on Facebook, @MT_Volleyball on Twitter and @mt_volleyball on Instagram.