Nov. 19, 2011
Box Score
2011 State Farm MVC Tournament Bracket
NORMAL, Ill. -- Carly Thomas notched the first triple-double of her career, capping the match with her 10th kill to end the fifth set as the Missouri State volleyball team overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat Illinois State in five sets by scores to 12-25, 20-25, 25-16, 25-19 and 15-8.
The Bears (22-7, 15-3 Missouri Valley Conference), who began the conference season with a 3-2 comeback win over the Redbirds (17-13, 9-9) on Sept. 16, provided some symmetry by closing the regular season in the same fashion, earning their seventh consecutive victory overall.
Missouri State now takes the No. 2 seed into next week's State Farm MVC Tournament and plays the winner of third-seeded Wichita State (19-9, 13-5) and No. 6 Indiana State (14-16, 6-12) at 5 p.m. Friday (Nov. 25) in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
Thomas' 10 kills, 48 assists and 18 digs made for the first triple-double of any kind at Missouri State since 2007, and the first involving those three categories since Katelyn Panzau did it against Wichita State in the 2006 MVC Tournament.
The sophomore guided the Bears to a .526 hitting percentage in the fifth set, handing out seven assists to go with three kills in three attempts, including the winner. Her double-figure totals of assists and digs marked her 21st double-double of the season, the most for a Bear setter since 1990, and she passed the 2,000 career assist mark and moved into ninth in school history in that category.
Not to be outdone, senior Calli Norman finished with 15 kills on a .370 hitting percentage, moving to seventh in MSU history with 459 career sets played and passing the 1,200 mark in career kills.
The Redbirds out-scored the Bears 50-32 in the first two sets, piling up 35 kills and a .364 hitting percentage to 19 kills and .108 for Missouri State.
Those numbers reversed in the third and fourth periods as MSU had 31 kills and hit .256 to 21 kills and .141 for ISU, resulting in a 50-35 advantage for the Bears.
By the end of the match, MSU led in total kills (61-60) and digs (85-83), while the Redbirds out-hit the Bears .230-.223.
Freshman Kaitlin Jaeger had 13 kills on a .344 hitting percentage for MSU and Christine McCartney added nine along with 11 digs and two aces. Ashley Mason had 26 digs and Anna Burgess added 14.
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