The Illinois State volleyball team is having a magical season.
ISU finished the regular season with two more wins over Missouri State and Wichita State to complete the perfect MVC regular-season. ISU (24-5, 18-0) joins an exclusive list of teams to have run the table in the Valley. They join Northern Iowa and Wichita State as the only teams to ever go 18-0 in MVC play.
The Redbirds locked up the 2014 Missouri Valley Conference regular-season title with their 3-1 win over Northern Iowa on November 15, their first title since 1997. ISU picked up a 3-0 victory over Drake the following day to extend its winning streak to 18 games—the longest streak since the 1996 team’s 21-game winning streak.
The last time the Redbirds lost the weather was still sunny and warm, the trees still had their leaves, and students were still settling into their fall class schedule. You have to go all the way back to September 20 when the Baylor Bears handed the Redbirds their last loss in a hard fought 5-set match. It is now November 20. The warm days of summer are long gone. All the beautiful trees on the campus of Illinois State University are bare. And the students are getting ready for finals. The one thing that has stayed the same: The Redbirds’ winning ways.
The winning streak for the Redbirds is now up to 20 games (2nd longest streak in program history), and ISU has a chance to match the 21-game winning streak of ’96 with a win in their first match in the MVC tournament. ISU could break the record with a victory in the MVC championship game.
Next up for the Redbirds is the MVC tournament. ISU will have a first-round bye and will play the winner of Missouri State and Southern Illinois on Friday, Nov. 28, at 5 p.m.
