EVANSVILLE, Ind. - Evansville improved to 10-1 for the season with a three-set victory over Southern Illinois University Edwardsville volleyball Wednesday night.

The Purple Aces defeated the Cougars 25-19, 25-17, 25-22.

SIUE Head Coach Todd Gober said the team's goal of continually improving was achieved despite the final outcome of the match.

"I'm proud of our team. We played a solid game," said Gober.

Jessica Hemann led SIUE with nine kills and a team-leading .364 hitting percentage. Hemann and fellow middle hitter Brianne Graunke turned in the top hitting percentages, but they didn't get as many attempts as Gober would have liked.

"We needed to get them more swings because they were effective," said Gober.

The Cougars and the Purple Aces were tied 9-9 in set one only to have the Purple Aces go on an 8-1 run to take a 17-10 lead. Gober said much of the match was SIUE playing even and then the momentum would shift into Evansville's favor. He was pleased with how team kept battling and working toward making comebacks.

"Volleyball is the kind of game where momentum is important. It was just hard to make up that ground," Gober said.

Gober also took note of the play of freshman Julia Whitfield and senior Sydney Winslow. "Julia played pretty well despite her statistics (six kills), and Sydney had some big kills tonight."

Evansville middle hitter Emily Wandersee led all players with 13 kills. She helped the Purple Aces to a team hitting percentage of .267 and was among the team leaders in blocks with four.

"They did a good job of making sure she was involved in their offense," Gober said.

The Cougars recorded 40 kills in the match and stayed with the Purple Aces defensively as well. Gober said the difference Wednesday was in passing and ball control.

SIUE fell to 3-5 with the loss and now continues east toward Spartanburg, S.C., where the team plays at the Wofford Invitational. The Cougars start the two-day tournament with host Wofford on Friday. That will be followed by Saturday matches against Stetson and USC Upstate.

Gober is hoping that the momentum of the improvement he has seen in his team over the course of the last two weeks will be powerful enough to help the team in its third tournament of the season.

"That's one of the better teams we're going to face," Gober said of Evansville.

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