Originally published October 8, 2010
The women’s volleyball team extended its losing streak to 10 games in two home losses last weekend.
Southern Illinois defeated the Braves in straight sets 25-20, 25-16, 25-12 to drop the team’s conference record to 0-5 on the season.
The Braves led 17-16 midway through the first set, but Southern Illinois capitalized on a 5-0 spurt to give them a 21-17 lead. Bradley got the score to within three points at 22-19 before the Salukis took the set with three straight kills.
Southern Illinois began the second set on fire, hitting at a .515 clip in the frame. Freshman Lauren Zerante tried to get the Braves back in the match with five kills on just seven attempts, but it was not meant to be as the Salukis cruised to a 25-16 second-set victory.
The visitors began the third set with five straight points and never looked back; taking the set in dominating fashion 25-12.
Zerante led the Braves with eight kills and senior Megan Schmidt added seven. Junior Rachelle Dejean had a match-high 14 digs, allowing her to surpass 900 digs in her career. She is only the 15th player in program history to reach the mark.
Bradley finished off its three game home stand with a loss in four sets to Missouri Valley Conference foe Evansville.
After losing the first two sets, the Braves battled back to take a hard-fought third set, 25-23.
With the score knotted at 23, senior Melissa Collins slammed home two kills to give Bradley the set.
Collins recorded seven of her match-high 16 kills in the third set.
The Purple Aces finished off the Braves with a dominating fourth set victory, 25-14. The loss dropped the team’s overall record to 4-13 and a conference record of 0-6.
Schmidt had 13 kills and sophomore Shelly Mueller had a season-high eight digs in the losing effort.
Mueller said to end the losing streak the team needs to continue to improve on the areas it’s struggling with.
“I think that we need to keep playing as a team and working hard in practice,” she said. “We need work on the things we are struggling with and keep communicating with each other.”
