SPRINGFIELD, IL --- The Prairie Stars (5-9, 0-6) fell twice to close out a four-game road trip, suffering a 3-2 loss to Bellarmine before closing out the weekend with a 3-0 loss to Southern Indiana. Illinois Springfield has dropped their last six matches, two of which of gone to five-sets.

BELLARMINE 3, ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD 2
Against the Knights (11-3, 2-3), the Prairie Stars took the opening set 25-19, using a six point run early to take control of the match. UIS had nine kills in the set opposite of five errors. Bellarmine took the second and third sets by scores of 25-17 and 25-22, racking up 35 kills over the two sets.

UIS came back in the fourth with a 25-19 win thanks to a 15 kill effort and making just two errors. Over the course of the third and fourth sets, UIS hit .276 and .277 as they brought the match back even.

In the final set, errors haunted the Prairie Stars as they committed 11 errors. The Knights closed out the match with a 15-10 win in the fifth set.

Alli Splitt led the way with 15 kills and added two aces while Tiffany Sunderlin also got into double digits with 10 kills. Alyssa Hasler recorded eight blocks in the game while Lexi Hall led the way with 28 assists.

SOUTHERN INDIANA 3, ILLINOIS SPRINGFIELD 0
The Prairie Stars suffered a 3-0 defeat to Southern Indiana, falling in the first and third sets 25-22 with a 25-16 defeat in the second. Both teams recorded 16 kills and four errors in the first set but the Prairie Stars couldn't hang on.

Sunderlin led the Prairie Stars with eight kills as Hasler added three more blocks to go with eight the previous night. Jailyn Borum, playing in her first collegiate game, recorded a team-high 14 digs in the loss.

UIS is now 5-9, 0-6 on the season and will come home for three consecutive games beginning with McKendree on Tuesday before taking on Saint Joseph's and Indianapolis on Friday and Saturday. These will be the final three games before the Midwest Regional Crossover on October 14-15 in Aurora, Illinois.