October 7, 2005 SYCAMORES TAKE FIRST-PLACE BRADLEY TO THE LIMIT TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Indiana State pushed Bradley to five games but was unable to pull out the victory as the Braves earned a hard-fought 25-30, 30-20, 29-31, 30-16, 15-7 victory on Friday night at ISU Arena. It was the eighth straight win for Bradley, who remains perfect in conference action at 6-0, while the Sycamores fall to 0-7 despite taking its first games of The Valley season. “We did an absolutely great job,” said head coach Julie Krofcheck. “This was the first time in the MVC season that we really competed. We were just a couple of points away from pulling this one out.” The Sycamores jumped on the Braves from the start as they took a 3-0 lead. However, BU battled back and took a 9-8 lead. Then ISU turned it on as they posted six straight points and never looked back. Alisha Polite and Sarah Smith each had four kills in the first game, while Christy Trame recorded four blocks. The Braves came back in game two as they posted a .244 attack percentage compared to a .043 mark for the Sycamores as they evened the match at 1-1. But the Sycamores would not roll over as they jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the third game. Bradley answered and had a four-point lead as late as 24-20, when ISU made there own 6-2 run to tie the game at 26-26. The game eventually went to 29-29 before the Sycamores answered with kills by Stephanie Meier and Christy Trame to take a 2-1 advantage. ISU posted a season-high 20 kills in the game. Bradley showed why they are in first place in the final two games as they hit .400 in game four and .438 in game five behind All-America candidate Lindsay Stalzer’s attack, while ISU could only manage 12 kills while having 15 errors in the last two games. “We are moving in the right direction,” said Krofcheck. “We have too high of highs and get too low in our low points. When we have the momentum and things are going well, we can be tough, but we need to limit our low points.” Junior Meghan Pollard tallied a career-high 28 digs, which also sets an new ISU season high, while Kristy Cox also added 20 digs. Three Sycamores posted double-digit kills with Tessa Wolf leading ISU with 15. Katie Freeman posted a double-double with 13 kills and 13 digs and Sarah Smith added 11 kills. Freshman Alisha Polite led ISU with 37 assists while also adding nine kills, six digs and four blocks. Christy Trame posted eight blocks, to lead ISU to 13 team blocks. Stalzer led BU with a match-high 26 kills on 74 attacks for a .230 hitting percentage. Briony Hammet also recorded 20 kills and 15 digs. The Sycamores will host Northern Iowa (10-7, 4-2) on Saturday at
7 pm in ISU Arena in another MVC contest. |