EVANSVILLE, IND. ? On the strength of a season-high 13 blocks, the Drake volleyball team rolled to an impressive 3-0 (25-22, 28-26, 25-9) victory over Evansville on Friday evening (Nov. 14) in Missouri Valley Conference action.

The Bulldogs registered their second consecutive win to improve their ledger to 11-18 overall, including 4-11 in league competition. The Purple Aces dropped their opportunity to lock up the No. 5 seed at the upcoming MVC Tournament and fell to 13-15 on the year and 7-8 in the MVC.

“Tonight was our most dominating blocking performance this season as we collected 13 blocks in only three sets,” Drake head coach Phil McDaniel commented. “It was a great defensive effort highlighted by our back row garnering 69 digs in the match.”

Redshirt freshman Mikayla Sims (Waterloo, Iowa/East) had another stellar outing for the Bulldogs as she paced all players with 11 kills, while adding six block assists.

Drake gained the early momentum in the affair as it took advantage of eight Evansville errors in the first set to claim a 25-22 triumph.

Hitting numbers were atrocious for both sides in the second stanza, but the Bulldogs, despite attacking the ball at a .019 clip, overcame an 18-12 deficit to register a 28-26 win. Drake limited the Purple Aces to a -.041 hitting percentage and forced Evansville into 12 errors.

The Bulldogs finished off the victory with a dominating 25-9 decision in the final set.

Junior Chelsea Lauersdorf (Watertown, Wis./Watertown) fell one dig shy of a double-double turning in a 20-assist, nine-dig effort. Sophomore Alana Wittenburg (Readlyn, Iowa/Wapsie Valley) and junior Emily Madden (Van Meter, Iowa/Adel DeSoto Minburn) each finished with double-figure digs contributing 22 and 11, respectively, while Lauersdorf and sophomore Angela Bys (Marion, Iowa/Marion) added nine digs apiece.

Sophomore Nicole Brown (Appleton, Wis./Xavier) finished the contest with a match- and career-high nine blocks, while Sims and freshman Michelle Reidy (Dubuque, Iowa/Wahlert Catholic) posted six and four blocks, respectively.

Ginta Gabruseva directed the Evansville attack with six kills. Julie Sylvester and Brooke Maher were credited with 22 and 11 digs for the Purple Aces.

Drake won the statistical count in the tilt in kills (37-30), assists (34-29), digs (69-64), blocks (13.0-4.0) and service aces (5-2).

The Bulldogs close out the road portion of their schedule with a 7:00 p.m. tilt at Southern Illinois on Saturday (Nov.15).