EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Western Illinois rallied from a 2-1 set deficit Monday to defeat Southern Illinois University Edwardsville 15-25, 26-24, 19-25, 25-17, 15-8 at the Vadalabene Center.

SIUE dropped to 10-8 after the loss while Western Illinois improved to 6-12.

"You have to give their team a lot of credit," said SIUE Head Coach Todd Gober. "I think they played a great defensive match. They were strong defensively. They were really persistent. It was frustrating."

Sydney Winslow tied her season best in kills with 17 and finished with a strong .481 hitting percentage. Julia Whitfield and Lexi Cibulka joined Winslow in double figures with 14 and 11 kills, respectively.

Cait Egan led the Leathernecks with a team-high 16 kills and a .414 hitting percentage.

The Cougars came out strong early with a 10-point win in the first set. Whitfield garnered four of her kills, and the Cougars added three service aces.

Western Illinois would come back in set two behind four kills each from Allison Gilbert and Meghan Ross. SIUE continued to be strong with 16 kills in the set but also finished with eight errors.

"I know our team is frustrated because we have more focus than that, and we had opportunities to close out sets. It wasn't a consistent level of play over the course of the night," said Gober.

SIUE fought back for the victory in the third set by taking advantage of nine attack errors from Western Illinois.

The Leathernecks rallied back in the fourth and fifth set by eliminating its attack errors and forcing a few more from the Cougars. WIU hit .333 in the final set behind three kills each from Ross and Meghan Toczek.

"We really feel like we let one get away tonight," added Gober.

SIUE is now idle until Saturday when it begins a two-match road trip. The Cougars travel to Milwaukee for a 2 p.m. match and follow that up with a 2 p.m. Sunday match at DePaul.