PEORIA, Ill. -- Senior Alise Tupuritis (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) tallied a match-high 15 kills and tied for team-high honors with eight digs to help power Bradley to a 25-23, 25-21, 25-19 sweep of Southern Illinois Saturday at Renaissance Coliseum.

The Braves (11-9 overall, 5-6 MVC) used a solid defensive effort, holding Southern Illinois (12-11 overall, 7-4 MVC) to an .066 attack percentage in the final two sets and snapped a five-match Saluki win streak with the victory.  Tupuritis led Bradley in kills for the second straight night, but was one of five BU players with five or more kills in the victory to complete the series sweep of SIU for the second time in three seasons.

In the first set, Bradley led by as many as four points on a pair of occasions and held a 23-19 advantage after a Southern Illinois attack error.  Taylor Pippen had back-to-back kills as the Salukis answered with three consecutive points to pull within one at 23-22.  Junior Allie Falter (Lincoln, Neb./Pius X) ended the SIU run, however, with a kill and sophomore Kristi Chynoweth (Parkland, Fla./North Broward) followed a Saluki block with a kill to finish off a 25-23 BU victory.  Tupuritis had six of her 15 kills in the opening set to help highlight the win.

Southern Illinois hit just .050 against Bradley in the second set, but it was close throughout with the set featuring eight ties and six lead changes.  The Braves built an 18-13 lead with a 4-0 spurt, but SIU clawed back into the contest and trailed 22-20 after a Meg Viggars kill.  The squads traded points (23-21) and Bradley held set-point (24-21) after a Tupuritis kill before the Braves closed out a 25-21 win on a Falter block. 

Bradley hit .263 in the third set and seven different BU players had a kill as the Braves completed the sweep with a 25-19 victory.  The Bradley lead stood at 18-15 when Tupuritis opened a 5-1 BU run with back-to-back kills to push the advantage to 23-16.  Falter gave the Braves set point at 24-17 with a kill and Chynoweth later sealed the sweep with a kill of her own as Bradley took the set 25-19.

The sweep was Bradley first three-set victory against Southern Illinois since Oct. 23, 2003 and kept the Braves alone in sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference standings. 

In addition to Tupuritis' 15 kills, sophomore Jessie Tulacka (Westmont, Ill./Downers Grove North) had eight kills, while freshman Rachel Jones (Champaign, Ill./Centennial) and Chynoweth each added six kills.  Falter had six blocks to help Bradley to its highest block total (9.0) since the match at Southern Illinois on Sept. 27 and also had five kills. 

Pippen and Jessica Whitehead paced SIU offensively with 10 kills each.  Alex Rivera notched a match-high 12 digs for the Salukis.

Bradley opens a three-match Valley road swing Friday with a 7 p.m. match at I-74 rival Illinois State.