NORMAL, Ill. – The Illinois State volleyball team earned a 3-0 win over visiting Loyola Chicago as the Redbirds evened their record in Missouri Valley Conference play in a league match at Redbird Arena Friday night. Illinois State won by scores of 25-13, 25-22, 25-16.
Jaelyn Keene paced the Redbird offense with 12 kills, three aces and three blocks. Sydney Holt added 10 kills on a career-best .556 hitting percentage, thanks to an errorless night.
Stef Jankiewicz dished out 23 assists for Illinois State, while Courtney Pence led all players with 16 digs.
"It's a nice win. It's good to come back and respond with a 3-0 victory at home," said Illinois State head coach Leah Johnson. "I thought we started really strong in sets one and three, and we had some lulls, but we're also trying some things, developing some people in some positions and developing some opportunities for us to get better by the end of the year. I really like where our team is at."
Illinois State (10-9, 3-3 MVC) scored the first three points of the first set and never looked back. A five-point run later in the set that featured back-to-back aces from Keene increased the Redbird lead to 22-10. A kill from Ali Line got the Redbirds to a set point and a kill from Holt moments later sealed an opening-set win.
Loyola (1-15, 0-5) grabbed an early lead in the second set and led by as many as four points at 17-13. Illinois State answered with a 5-1 run, however, to tie it up at 18-18. The Redbirds took their first lead in the set with a kill from Line that made it 20-19. A service ace from Holt shortly after set up a set-winning kill from Ella Francis.
The Redbirds shot out to a 4-0 lead early in the third set and led wire-to-wire to complete the sweep. Four separate runs of four-straight points lifted Illinois State in the decisive set, including the final run that got the Redbirds to a match point, courtesy of a Juma Armando kill. Loyola fought off three-straight match points, but another kill from Armando ended it.
The Illinois State volleyball team returns to Redbird Arena Saturday night to take on Valparaiso at 7 p.m. Saturday night will be the team's annual "Pack The Arena" match, offering free admission to all fans, $1 hot dogs and post-match player autographs.
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