CARBONDALE, Ill. (GreenBayPhoenix.com) - Green Bay finished its last non-conference tournament of the volleyball season in good fashion, posting a 3-0 win over Murray State Saturday evening in its final match of the Saluki Invitational in Carbondale, Ill. For the Phoenix, it was a strong bounce back effort after a frustrating 3-2 loss to tourney host Southern Illinois earlier in the day.

Junior Carmen Leitermann (Schofield, Wis.) led the Phoenix with 26 kills on Saturday while senior Abbey Gitter (Hortonville, Wis.) earned a spot on the all-tournament team with her strong play all weekend. Against Murray State, Leitermann had 11 kills and tied a career high with four solo blocks to help the Phoenix to the sweep. Gitter had 32 kills and nine errors on the weekend.

The Murray State win saw the Phoenix register a season-high .325 hitting percentage with 47 kills and just eight errors. The team's five starting hitters - Leitermann, Gitter, seniors Carlie Willison (Greenfield, Wis.), Kelly Mischler (Kaukauna, Wis.) and sophomore Lyndsay Zabkowicz (Oak Creek, Wis.) - combined for 42 kills and just six errors.

Sophomore Leah Poel (Jenison, Mich.) assisted on 40 of the kills and added 10 digs for her third double-double of the season. For the weekend, the setter had 119 assists, 29 digs and 14 kills while hitting .433.

"We rebounded well against Murray State," said head coach Debbie Kirch. "It is not easy to come back and play again after a five-set loss, but we came out with good focus and got the job done."

SIU 3, GREEN BAY 2 (20-25, 25-18, 18-25, 25-22, 15-12)
The loss against SIU was frustrating to the Phoenix after it stormed out with a strong first set and took a 2-1 lead after set three. Leitermann tallied a team-high 15 kills and added five digs for Green Bay while Zabkowicz added nine kills and a season-high 13 digs.

"It was another frustrating five-set loss for us," said Kirch, whose team fell to 1-3 in matches going the distance. "I hate to sound like a broken record, but we need to have a killer instinct to put teams away. I liked the way we came out against them. We had good energy and intensity and we were mentally engaged."

Green Bay, a team that has struggled early in the season in the opening set, came out of the gate quickly on Saturday afternoon. Getting 13 kills and recording just one error, the Phoenix scored the first three points and led throughout most of set one. The team trailed only once, at 17-16, but scored nine of the final 12 points for the win.

Gitter and Willison each had four kills in the opening set, in which the Green Bay blocking helped hold the Salukis to a hitting percentage of just .077. Gitter finished with 11 kills and four blocks for the match. Willison also posted 11 kills for Green Bay, but her 10 errors held her hitting percentage to just .026.

Leitermann had five kills in set two, but neither the Phoenix offense or defense were as strong as SIU as the Salukis hit .324 and held Green Bay to a hitting percentage of just .133.

The third set looked a lot like the first for Green Bay, with the Phoenix forcing eight hitting errors from SIU and hitting a staggering .423 with 14 kills and just three errors in 26 swings. Midway through the set, Green Bay scored seven-straight points to turn a 9-9 game into a 16-9 lead, with six points coming off the serve of junior libero Brittany Groth (Oak Creek, Wis.). Groth led the Phoenix with 20 digs and Mischler had a team-high six blocks in the match.

Poel had 12 assists in the third and finished the match with 49. She also added nine digs and seven kills with just one error.  Green Bay hit .389 (27 kills, four errors) in the two sets that it won in the match.

SIU led for most of the fourth, but a kill from Leitermann and a service ace from Leah Van Zeeland (Kaukauna, Wis.) late cut the deficit to 23-22 and forced a Saluki timeout. However, back-to-back SIU kills sent the match to a fifth set. Green Bay totaled 10 attack errors in the fourth set while hitting just .095.

The fifth and deciding set started off tremendously for the Phoenix, who led 7-3 after a Willison kill. The Salukis scored five of the next six points to tie it, but kills from Leitermann and Zabkowicz again put the Phoenix in front (10-8). SIU scored the next five points and seven of the last nine to hand Green Bay the disappointing loss.

GREEN BAY 3, MURRAY STATE 0 (25-20, 25-14, 25-23)
The Phoenix jumped out to an early 12-5 lead in the opening set against the Racers and took the opening set for the second time Saturday. With Poel tallying 13 assists, Green Bay had 15 kills and only two errors to hit .302. Leitermann and Willison each had four kills while Gitter added three in the 25-20 first set win.

Unlike the match against SIU, Green Bay kept the pedal down and raced out in front of Murray State again in the second set. Green Bay had 13 kills - 12 on Poel assists - and used a 9-0 run on Poel's serve to build a 16-7 lead. The lead grew to as much as the final margin as the Phoenix dominated the set.

The second set was possibly the best of the season for the Green Bay offense as the team hit .425 with 19 kills and two errors. Poel finished the set with 16 assists while Gitter had five kills and Zabkowicz tallied four without an error.

In the third, Green Bay was unable to pull away from the Racers like in the previous two sets, but the Phoenix trailed on only two occasions. The set was tied at 23-23 before a Van Zeeland kill gave Green Bay the lead for good.

Leitermann had 11 kills with just one error to hit .476 while Gitter totaled 10. Mischler, Willison and Zabkowicz added eight, seven and six kills respectively. Sophomore Sabrina Marunowski (Milwaukee, Wis.) led the team with 11 digs with Groth adding 10.

Green Bay returns to action on Tuesday for its final non-conference tune-up before Horizon League play starts. The Phoenix will play at Marquette at 7 p.m., with its conference opener at Milwaukee slated for Friday at 7 p.m.

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Southern Illinois 3, Green Bay 2
Green Bay (2-7) (Kills-aces-blocks)
LEITERMANN, Carmen 15-0-5; WILLISON, Carlie 11-0-4; GITTER, Abbey 11-0-4; ZABKOWICZ, Lyndsay 9-2-1; POEL, Leah 7-0-2; MISCHLER, Kelly 5-0-6; VAN ZEELAND, Leah 3-4-0; MARUNOWSKI, Sabrina 0-1-0; GROTH, Brittany 0-1-0; Totals 61-8-12.0. (Assists) - POEL, Leah 49. (Dig leaders) - GROTH, Brittany 20; ZABKOWICZ, Lyndsay 13; VAN ZEELAND, Leah 10; POEL, Leah 9

Southern Illinois (5-2) (Kills-aces-blocks)
Thole, Laura 17-2-2; Mayes, Alysia 13-1-4; Whitehead, Jessica 13-0-1; Braghini, Alexis 6-0-3; Brown, Rachael 3-1-4; Braaten, Elly 3-2-0; Arnold, Amanda 3-0-0; Less, Emily 1-0-0; Schumacher, Caitlin 0-1-0; Yeager, Bailey 0-2-0; Totals 59-9-9.0. (Assists) - Brown, Rachael 44. (Dig leaders) - Thole, Laura 22; Yeager, Bailey 18; Brown, Rachael 13

Green Bay 3, Murray State 0
Green Bay (3-7) (Kills-aces-blocks)
LEITERMANN, Carmen 11-1-5; GITTER, Abbey 10-0-0; MISCHLER, Kelly 8-0-2; WILLISON, Carlie 7-0-1; ZABKOWICZ, Lyndsay 6-0-1; VAN ZEELAND, Leah 2-0-0; ANDERSON, Monica 1-0-0; GROTH, Brittany 1-0-0; POEL, Leah 1-2-1; MARUNOWSKI, Sabrina 0-2-0; Totals 47-5-7.0. (Assists) - POEL, Leah 40. (Dig leaders) - MARUNOWSKI, Sabrina 11; GROTH, Brittany 10; POEL, Leah 10

Murray State (0-11) (Kills-aces-blocks)
WOOLVERTON, Cassy 13-0-1; ZICKFIELD, Wendi 8-1-1; KROG, Teresa 8-1-0; HAVILI, Lia 2-0-1; CUNNINGHAM, Mary 1-0-0; ORF, Lydia 1-0-0; SAUER, Kayleah 0-2-0; Totals 33-4-2.0. (Assists) - GOODRICH, Molly 16; HAVILI, Lia 15. (Dig leaders) - SAUER, Kayleah 11; HAVILI, Lia 10; ZICKFIELD, Wendi 9