EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – SIUE volleyball made its biggest comeback of the season Friday night with a five-set victory over UT Martin at the Vadalabene Center.

The Cougars won their second straight match and improved to 11-15 overall and 3-8 in the Ohio Valley Conference. SIUE lost the first two sets 25-21 and 25-14 only to roar back in the next three sets 25-22, 26-24 and 15-13.

"Our serve and pass game in sets three on were strong," said SIUE Head Coach Leah Johnson. "That truly turned around the match."

UT Martin, 10-15 overall and 3-8 in the OVC, came out strong with 20 of its 64 kills in the first set.

Allie Whimpey led four UT Martin players with double figures kills. She had 15 while Emily Keaton had 14, Madison Wessling recorded 13, and Alisha Erves added 11.

"Our passing had struggled early on, but our offense was cooking because we hit .271 in the set one," said Johnson. "The offense was there, but we could not be consistent enough in the passing game to execute at a high level."

The team and coaching staff discussed what was going well and what wasn't between the second and third sets. Once the third set started, SIUE looked more like the team with the lead than a team down by two sets.

"They started playing more aggressive so they felt more comfortable at the serve receive line," said Johnson. "The key to the change was Kristen Torre became more involved in the offense. Chelsea Colclasure has a ton of digs. We were able to use Carley Ramich in the middle, and the outsides looked good."

Torre led all players with 18 kills while Colclasure added a season-high 30 digs. Ramich led the team in hitting percentage at .467 with eight kills.

SIUE finished with 65 kills for the match and nine blocks. Torre led the Cougars with five blocks followed by four from Ashley Witt. Taylor Held and Emily Harrison joined Torre in double figures kills with 11 and 10, respectively.

The Cougars return to action Saturday at 2 p.m. against Southeast Missouri at the Vadalabene Center.