The Missouri State volleyball team went the full five sets for a second consecutive night and emerged victorious yet again, edging Indiana State 23-25, 25-14, 24-26, 25-22, 15-8 for a Missouri Valley Conference win Saturday at ISU Arena in Terre Haute, Ind.
The Bears, now 18-8 overall and 9-4 in the league after their two weekend victories, hit .357 in the final set and capitalized on seven ISU errors to score a relatively easy win in the fifth set to claim a match that was anything but easy.
Indiana State (8-18, 2-11) nearly ended its now 31-match losing streak against MSU by jumping ahead 17-9 in the first set and holding on for the two-point win. The Sycamores pounded 17 kills in the set and hit .244.
MSU made just one error in 35 attempts in the second set, hitting .371 and tying the match before intermission, then had a shot at gaining its first match lead in the third period before watching the home team score the final two points after a 24-24 tie, the 13th tie in the set.
The Bears struggled offensively in the fourth set, hitting their lowest percentage of any set in the match, but blocked four Sycamore attacks and those proved to be the difference in the three-point win. ISU also helped the Bears’ cause by committing five service errors in the set.
Four MSU players reached double figures in kills with
Sara Staubach leading the way after coming off the bench for the first time this season. The junior outside hitter had 14 kills on 36 swings without a hitting error to hit .389.
Bethany Fuller followed with 11 to go with a team-high seven blocks, five of which were credited as solos.
Cara Hackmann and
Calli Norman added 10 kills apiece.
Terri Del Conte led the team with 25 digs and her total of 53 for the weekend moved her all the way from 17th to eighth on MSU’s single-season digs list with 443 now in 2008.
Missouri State hit .219 for the match to ISU’s .142 mark and totaled 13 total blocks.
The Bears step out of conference to play at 6 p.m. Tuesday when they host Texas-Pan American at Hammons Student Center.
