Amanda Newlin (pictured) and Brooke Hopper each had five kills in the loss to SIU
Final Stats CARBONDALE, Ill. – The Nicholls State University women's volleyball team struggled offensively hitting .041 for the match and fell in straight sets to the host Southern Illinois Salukis 14-25, 16-25, 12-25 Friday night in the team's opener of the Saluki Invitational.
Nicholls (1-5) only led one time in the entire match, that coming on the first point of the second set that the Colonels won on a Saluki (6-1) attack error. In the first and second sets SIU jumped out to large leads that the Colonels wouldn't be able to recover from, as Nicholls had six, seven and eight kills in each of the three sets.
Nicholls got contributions from
Amanda Newlin and
Brooke Hopper who each had five kills for the Colonels on the night.
Nancy Taylor and
Marlee Bean combined for 17 assists, while
Jeanne Logarbo had 11 digs.
SIU converted 67-percent of sideout chances on the night and was a force offensively, led by Alysia Mayes' 15 kills and Laura Thole's 14. Mayes hit .500 and accounted for 20 Saluki points, with SIU's Rachel Brown chipping in 23 assists.
Southern Illinois went on a 5-0 run in the first set and led by as many as 11 points at three different points of the set before winning 25-14.
With the score tied 2-2 in the second, the Salukis won six of the next seven points to take an 8-3 lead. The Colonels took three of the next four to pull within three points of SIU with the score 9-6, but got only one more point as the home team would go up 14-7, and allowed just one more Nicholls point over the next four to take an 18-8 lead.
Nicholls rattled off six straight to make the game 18-14, but four points would be the closest the team would get to SIU for the rest of the set as the offense stalled at the 16-point mark with SIU taking the set 25-16.
In the third, a seven and six-point run in the first 20 of the third set put the Colonels down 16-4 to Southern Illinois as Nicholls never recovered in the 25-12 final set.
The Colonels will play twice tomorrow, taking on UT Martin at 10 a.m. and UALR at 5 p.m. to conclude tournament play.
