KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - The Truman State University volleyball team stayed hot on Saturday afternoon inside Pershing Arena as it defeated Southern Indiana in four sets. The Bulldogs have now won seven of their last nine matches and are above the .500 mark for the first time all season.

Truman improved to 13-12 overall and 6-7 in Great Lakes Valley Conference (GLVC) play while Southern Indiana's three-match winning streak was snapped and it fell to 11-15 on the year, including 4-9 in league action. Saturday, the Bulldogs turned in one of their most well-rounded offensive efforts of 2017 with 60 kills and only 13 errors on 164 total attacks for a blistering hitting percentage of .287. Those 60 kills were just one behind the season high of 61 set vs. McKendree on Sept. 23 (five sets).

Individually, a quartet of Truman attackers had at least 10 kills including Sam Yancy (career-high 15), Jasmine Brown (14), Natalie Brimeyer (11), and Emma Berthold (10). Yancy hit a red-hot .333, Brimeyer was at .292 and Berthold was the best of all with a clip of .400. After not reaching double-digit kills in her first 19 matches of the season, Berthold has reached such heights in two of her last three appearances. As always, the attack was aided by Savvy Hughes and her 54 assists, which gives her three matches with at least 50 this year, but first since the end of September.

Defensively, the Purple and White collected 19 blocks including three solo and 16 assisted. Brimeyer was the ringleader with one solo stuff and four assisted. Lauren Wacker was back from injury to make the start and was on top in digs with 26, Yancy had 11 and Hughes added 10.

How it happened...

• The first set was the closest one of the day as it saw a combined 10 ties and four lead changes, but Southern Indiana won it, 25-23.
• Truman hit just .149 for that set, but by no means was that an indicator of things to come.
• In the second set, the Bulldogs scored four of the first five points and led by at least two the rest of the way.
• The Purple and White took all the momentum with a 6-0 run that gave them their biggest lead of the set at nine, 20-11, before winning the set, 25-16.
• For the third set, the home team once again tallied four of the first five scores, but the visitors eventually tied things up at 8-8.
• After four more ties, the fourth being 14-14, the Screaming Eagles took the lead and were ahead by as many as three (19-16, 20-17 and 21-18).
• From there, the Bulldogs ended the set with seven of the final eight points to win the set by three, 25-22.
• The fourth set was all about Southern Indiana early on as it was up by six, 10-4, in the beginning.
• Truman bounced right back, though, and was able to knot it up at 15-15.
• After five more ties, the last one at 20-20, the Bulldogs regained the advantage and never looked back for a 25-23 set victory and the match in four.

Next up, Truman will host Northwest Missouri State on Halloween in the final non-conference affair of the regular season. First serve inside Pershing Arena is set for 7 p.m.

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