TERRE HAUTE —
A 1-6 start and a last-place finish in your own tournament may not look like a promising start for the Indiana State volleyball season, but Sycamore senior Shea Doran — and more importantly, the performance of Doran and her teammates — indicated that it was Sunday afternoon in the ISU Arena.
ISU had a miserable start Sunday against Western Illinois — the Drury Inn Jessica Barkman Memorial Classic champion — and played uphill the rest of the day, but looked like the stronger team in all but the final moments of the last four sets of a 25-14, 25-23, 16-25, 19-25, 17-15 loss.
The Leathernecks had already beaten the two teams in the tournament — Loyola and SIU-Edwardsville — that had beaten the Sycamores, and Sunday’s first set showed why. ISU had no answers for the WIU attack and tournament MVP Samantha Fournier, the visitors posting a .682 hitting percentage for the set.
In the second set — a pivotal one, it turned out — the home team started defending. With Ashlen Buck leading the way, the rallies got longer and the Sycamores won some key points, but Western got four of the set’s last five to take a 2-0 lead.
Rather than be discouraged, however, the home team went to work, starting with a 9-0 run for a 10-1 lead to start the third set. When the Sycamores won that one and shook off a late Leatherneck rally to hang onto a fourth-set win, ISU had the momentum, and rallied from 0-3 to take a 7-5 lead in the decisive fifth set.
Doran’s bid for a service ace at that point just missed the back line, and a similar serve by Western’s Katie Hosteng hit the back line for her own ace. Instead of a 9-5 lead, ISU was now tied 7-7.
The Sycamores were still up 10-9 when Western scored three straight points. ISU tied the score at 13 and fought off two match points, but never got ahead again.
“We let our little mistakes build up,” Doran said after the match in trying to explain the first-set woes, “but we never, ever gave up.”
“This group is still learning how to play together. There are going to be some growing pains,” added coach Traci Dahl. “We’re still looking a different people in different positions, but every game we’re getting better.”
“I think this is the best start we’ve ever had,” insisted Doran. “We might not be getting wins, but we’re learning a lot. The freshmen [there are four of them on the court at the same time occasionally] are hard-working, and they add a lot to what we already have.”
The 6-foot-3 Doran, whose offense was the early bright spot, finished with 19 kills and 1.5 blocks but also had nine digs, two assists and a pair of aces, and stayed on the court for back-row play throughout the last three sets.
“I feel if I stay in [the match], my rhythm is better,” she said afterward. “Even though I don’t look like a back-row player, I feel I can contribute.”
Buck had 20 digs, Loni Mackinson 51 assists, freshman Victoria Swigart 14 kills and nine digs and Molly Murphy 13 kills and 13 digs for the Sycamores. Dahl was particularly happy about Swigart’s match — “She did a great job; she added something in the front row and the back row,” the coach said — and the production of Buck.
“Ashlen Buck is doing really well,” she said of the 2012 Northview graduate. “There’s a learning curve with her, but there’s a learning curve with everybody.”
Now the Sycamores — who are playing without injured Morgan Dall, last year’s Missouri Valley Conference leader in kills per set — have one more weekend tournament before beginning MVC play.
“It’s not going to be easy, because we’re pretty young,” Dahl said. “but we’ve got some pretty good athletes.
“We need to be really good in two weeks … and we need another win under our belts to move on from there.”
n Good Irish name — Both Indiana State and Western Illinois had a Molly Murphy playing regularly on Sunday. That was a little bit confusing, but probably not nearly as confusing as it was when they were playing together as teammates at Chicago Marist High School.
Western Illinois 25 25 16 19 17
Indiana State 14 23 25 25 15
Hitting percentage — WIU .203, ISU .166
Kills — WIU 55 (Samantha Fournier 21, Katie Hosteng 15), ISU 57 (Shea Doran 19, Victoria Swigart 14, Molly Murphy 13).
Assists — WIU 50 (Sarah Fetter 44), ISU 55 (Loni Mackinson 51).
Digs — WIU 64 (Bridget Murphy 17, Fetter 12, Molly Murphy 10), ISU 66 (Ashlen Buck 20, Molly Murphy 13, Mackinson 11).
Blocks — WIU 6 (Hosteng 3), ISU 7 (Kyla Thomas 2.5, Cassandra Willis 2).
Next — Indiana State (1-6) plays Miami of Ohio on Friday in the first of three matches at the Miami Tournament. Western Illinois is 3-3.
Drury Inn Jessica Barkman
Memorial Classic
All-Tournament Team
Samantha Fournier, Western Illinois, MVP
Kelsey Augustine, SIU-Edwardsville
Shea Doran, Indiana State
Anna Eytchison, Loyola of Chicago
Katie Hosteng, Western Illinois
Bridget Murphy, Western Illinois
Kristen Torre, SIU-Edwardsville
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