Racers Outlast SIUE In Five Setter

Saturday, September 23

Racer Arena

1 p.m.

Murray State

10-4

SIUE

10-3

SIU Edwardsville

Murray State

Photo by: Dave Winder-Murray State Athletics

9/23/2017 2:50:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

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The Murray State volleyball team started Ohio Valley Conference play with back-to-back wins when they outlasted SIUE 3-2 Saturday afternoon at Racer Arena in Murray, Ky.

With the successful weekend, the Racers have also extended their home court win streak to 27 straight. This impressive streak dates back to 2014.

These young Racers (10-4, 2-0 OVC) showed tremendous grit in a 3-1 win Friday over Eastern Illinois and today's five-set victory over the Cougars (10-4, 0-2 OVC).

The first set was tied 4-4, when the Racers won 6-of-7 points in one stretch to take a 12-6 lead. They went on to win it 26-24. The Racers fell behind 17-9 in the second set and never got any closer than five points as SIUE won the 25-20. The third set saw MSU lead most of the way until SIUE scored four-straight points for a 20-17 advantage, but MSU rallied for a 26-24 win. SIUE won the fourth set 25-18 and set up the drama for the fifth set.

Back to back kills by Rachel Giustino put MSU in front 8-7 and then Olivia Chatman slammed one and the lead was three. The Racers finally broke free when SIUE was long on an attack and a Giustino hit one of her 20 kills in on the day. Match point was decided off of Becca Fernandez's serve that SIUE hit out of bounds.

Giustino led the way with 20 kills in 65 chances, while Dacia Brown added 12 in 30 attempts. Giustino and Fernandez had 13 and 14 digs, respectively, while Alex Kaufmann tallied a career-best 30 in the win.

The Racers were out-hit by SIUE .217 to .183, but still managed to find a way for a win.

The Racers hit the road next weekend with a Friday 7 p.m. game at UT Martin (Sept. 29) and a Saturday 1 p.m. meeting at Southeast Missouri (Sept. 30). MSU is next at home to play a Heritage Bank Battle of the Border with Austin Peay (Oct. 3) at Racer Arena.