Sept. 3, 2010
By Dana Ingraham
SIUSalukis.com
STORRS, Conn. - Recording its third shutout of the season and its second in a row, the Southern Illinois volleyball team cruised to a 3-0 victory over Brown (27-25, 25-11, 25-11) in the first round of the UConn Toyota Classic Friday night.
SIU (3-1) was slow coming out of the gate, down 5-1 early in the first set. The Salukis chipped away but Brown (0-1) remained ahead until a kill from Sydney Clark finally tied the score at 14. Southern would not take the lead until Alicia Johnson delivered a service ace to put the Dawgs up 24-23. The two teams tied again at 24 and then 25, before a Rachael Brown kill and an Alysia Mayes ace put the set away for good.
The Bears kept it close to begin the second set, leading 7-4 on back-to-back kills, but it wouldn't take long to light a Southern fire. Sparked by a kill from Johnson, the Salukis scored seven-straight points, their largest lead of the set coming at 19-9 fueled by three kills from Jasmine Conner. Bailey Yeager served the last five points of the set, throwing in two of her career-high four service aces on the night to give SIU the decisive 25-11 win.
It was easygoing for the Salukis after that, as the closest Brown would get in the third set would be a 2-2 tie before SIU ran away with the match.
SIU hit above .250 for the third time in four matches, posting a team percentage of .360 led by Johnson and Conner who had eight kills each. Mayes put up six kills while Rachael Brown and Jennifer Berwanger each had five.
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The UConn Toyota Classic continues Saturday when Southern faces off against Hartford at 9 a.m. CT, followed by a night matchup with tournament host Connecticut at 6:30 p.m. CT.
