HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. - Heather Bonde finished with 17 kills and a .467 hitting percentage Friday night as Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville defeated Northern Kentucky University, 23-30, 30-27, 30-18, 25-30, 15-12, in Regents Hall.
Tina Talsma and Tricia Happe combined for 29 kills and nine blocks for SIUE, which improved to 12-4 overall, 3-0 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The Cougars hit .306 as a team and won for the second straight season in Regents Hall.
NKU (8-5 overall, 1-1 GLVC) forced a fifth game by pulling out a 30-25 victory in the fourth stanza. Kristin Koralewski, who paced the Norse with 24 kills and a .417 hitting percentage despite being double-teamed most of the match, collected nine kills in the fourth game and capped it off by converting an attack to give NKU a 30-25 win.
In the fifth game, SIUE jumped out to a 9-5 lead and held off a late NKU rally. The Norse cut the lead to 14-12 on a kill by Liz Holmes, but Kindra Westendorf closed out the match by hammering down a kill to give SIUE a 15-12 victory.
SIUE attacked at a .429 clip in the fifth game, while NKU hit .385 in the final stanza.
Koralewski, who also had 10 digs, now has 1,127 career kills at NKU. She also needs just 26 digs to become the sixth player in Norse history to record both 1,000 digs and 1,000 kills.
Holmes finished with 17 kills, 11 digs and a .414 hitting percentage for NKU, which took advantage of 17 service errors by SIUE. Lynne Fischesser added 10 kills and 11 digs for the Norse, while Julie Lewis finished with eight kills and 22 digs.
Andrea Lanham collected 58 assists and eight digs for NKU, which had its winning streak snapped at five matches.
Talsma had 15 kills and six blocks for SIUE, while Happe added 14 kills. Shannon Winkeler finished with 11 kills for the Cougars, who trail NKU in the all-time series with NKU by a 13-3 margin.
NKU will play host to the University of Southern Indiana at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Screaming Eagles will enter that match with 9-4 overall record, and they are unbeaten (3-0) in the GLVC after a three-game win at Kentucky Wesleyan College on Friday.
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Kristin Koralewski |