EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.- Sydney Hummert and Julia Treichel led the SIUE attack with 15 kills each in the win over Southern Indiana on Saturday afternoon at First Community Arena. The Cougars needed all five sets to down the Screaming Eagles, with set scores of 25-19, 27-29, 25-19, 25-23, and 15-10.
"I loved their (Treichel and Hummert) performance today," Head Coach Kendall Paulus said. "They were both explosive today and saw the court well. They used a lot of different shot options and played aggressively. When they swing hard like they both did today, it's usually an effective kill."
Savannah Christian and Ainsley Ranstead also added double-digit kills for the Cougars with 11 each.
Nicole Kijowski paced the SIUE defense with a team-high 20 digs in the match. Hummert added 16 digs for SIUE, finishing the match with a double-double. She also co-led SIUE with three service aces. Jessica Vineyard added three as well.
"Nicole had a nice day and kept the match steady for us," added Paulus. "Their serving lined up well to our rotations and threw us out of rhythm, but our backcourt did a nice job of giving us confidence."
Setting the Cougars' attack were Caroline Waite and Alyse Drifka. Waite finished the match with a team-best 29 assists while Drifka dished out 27. Drifka also finished the match with a double-double, adding 14 digs.
Three athletes in the class of 2023 were honored in the Senior Day ceremony before the match: Jessica Vineyard, Caroline Waite, and Nicole Kijowski.
"All three of our seniors brought something unique to our program with different dynamics," said Paulus. "They each had different leadership components. They are all team-first-minded athletes, which allows the rest of the team to feed off them. They're a very hard-working group and caring individuals."
SIUE will travel to No. 1 seeded UT Martin for the 42nd Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. SIUE will play as the No. 8 seed and take on the Skyhawks Thursday, Nov. 17 at 6:00 p.m.
"We're excited to go into the postseason," said Paulus. "We're going to give it all we have. Playing the number one seed, it's hard to be more of an underdog. We love being the underdogs and I think we can thrive in that environment. We don't have a ton of time to prepare for it, but I trust our team right now."
