PEORIA, Ill. -- Senior Lindsay Stalzer recorded a match-high 27 kills and career-best 21 digs, but Illinois proved to be too much as the Redbirds downed Bradley 13-30, 30-19, 30-21, 30-23 at Robertson Memorial Field House Friday in Missouri Valley Conference volleyball action. The Braves fell to 14-13 overall, 7-6 in the Valley with the loss, while Illinois State improved to 16-8 overall, 12-2 in Valley play.

Playing in front of the second largest crowd in program history (1,078 fans), Bradley came out hot in game one, boasting a .400 attack percentage in the opener. Illinois State committed 12 of its 25 hitting errors in the opening game as the Braves cruised to an easy 30-13 victory to take a 1-0 lead.

The Redbirds regrouped in game two, hitting .409 in the frame behind seven kills from Emily Kabbes. Illinois State boasted a 25-14 edge in digs in the second game and limited the Braves to a .178 team hitting percentage. Bradley hit just .056 in the third game as the Redbirds took a 2-1 lead in the match with a 30-21 win in the third set.

Bradley trailed 22-19 in game four, before Stalzer notched consecutive kills to pull the Braves to within one point at 22-21. Kabbes helped push the Redbird lead back to three points with a kill and block as ISU took a 24-21 advantage. Stalzer and Kabbes traded kills and the two teams both committed attack errors to make the score 26-23 in favor of Illinois State.

Mary Catherine Richmond helped close out the match for Illinois State, recording a pair of kills and a block assist in the Redbirds final four points to give ISU a 30-23 victory.

Stalzer's 27 kills moved her into second place on the Missouri Valley Conference career kills list as she passed Northern Iowa's Molly O'Brien. Stalzer has 1,805 kills and is just the second player in Valley history to reach the 1,800-kill mark. In addition, she also had a career-best 21 digs for the first 20-kill, 20-dig outing of her career. Stalzer's season kill total of 577 is the fifth-best season total in Valley history and she needs 23 kills to become the third player in league history with a 600-kill season.

Sophomore Nikki Pierzchala and junior Briony Hammet were the only other Braves to post more than five kills as both finished the night with 10. Hammet added 15 digs for her seventh double-double of the year. Fellow senior Gillian Falknor had a team-high 22 digs and now owns the third best season total in program history with 446 digs in 2005.

Illinois State had four players in double figures in kills, led by Kabbes' 18 kills. She hit .457 on the evening and was joined in double figure kills by Richmond (13 kills), Laura Doornbos (12 kills) and Savannah Knowles (10 kills).

Bradley returns to action Saturday when the Braves play host to Indiana State at 7 p.m. at Robertson Memorial Field House.