AMES, IOWA - The Drake volleyball team continued to make dramatic strides in its turnaround from last season taking 2007 NCAA Tournament participant Xavier to the wire before dropping a 3-1 (17-25, 25-17, 25-18, 25-22) decision to the Musketeers on Friday (Sept. 12) at the Iowa State Tournament in Hilton Coliseum.
The Bulldogs' ledger fell to 7-2 after the setback, while Xavier improved to 5-1 overall.
“I told the team after the match that I can't ask them to play any harder than they did tonight,” Drake head coach Phil McDaniel said. “We came out on the short side of that match, but I tell you they fought with everything they had against a very good Xavier team. That team (Xavier) is lightning-quick and we had to make a lot of adjustments on the fly and the players made. We were right with them in every statistical category and they were out there playing hard and I can't ask for anything more than that.”
The difference in the contest came down to blocks, services aces and reception errors. The Musketeers posted advantages in blocks (8.0-7.0) and aces (8-4), while Drake committed eight reception errors to four for Xavier. Finishing the affair attacking at a .228 clip were the Bulldogs, while Xavier recorded a .241 hitting mark.
The initial set proved to be a battle with neither side able to achieve more than a two-point advantage until sophomore Alisa DeBerg Roth (Hudson, Iowa/Hudson) hammered consecutive kills to give Drake a 13-10 lead.
The tide quickly changed in the frame as the margin swelled to 16-11 off a kill from sophomore Angela Bys (Marion, Iowa/Marion). The Bulldogs continued the momentum rolling off five unanswered tallies in the frame to push a 19-16 margin to within one point of victory, 24-16. Fueling the surge were two kills apiece from Bys and redshirt freshman Mikayla Sims (Waterloo, Iowa/East) and a service ace from junior Chelsea Lauersdorf (Watertown, Wis./Watertown). Bys closed out the stanza with her seventh kill of the set to give Drake a 25-17 set-one triumph.
The Bulldogs registered 17 kills in the first frame en route to collecting a .267 hitting percentage against a .229 attack mark for the Musketeers.
The change over wasn't kind to the Bulldogs as the opportune bounces which fell the way of Drake in the initial set didn't fall in the second as Xavier raced out to an 8-3 lead and went on to lead by as many as eight in a 25-17 set two victory. The Bulldogs were stung by a .152 attack mark in the frame, while the Musketeers netted a .176 hitting percentage.
Xavier came out in the third set and set the pace of play jumping out to an 8-3 lead before Drake found a rhythm that enabled the Bulldogs to cut the margin to one, 15-14. Bys was instrumental in the run recording three of her four kills in the stanza.
The Musketeers had a salvo of their own netting seven of the next eight points to pull away in a 25-18 victory. Xavier struck the ball at a .407 clip in the set, while the Blue and White recorded a .308 hitting percentage.
Coming out renewed to start the fourth frame, as Drake used three kills from junior Ashley Jarek (Appleton, Wis./Appleton North) to claim an 11-4 lead.
The Musketeers fired back with five unanswered points to cut the margin to two, 13-11, before Sims ended the run with a thunderous kill.
Xavier battled back to square the contest at 21-21, before going ahead to stay on a kill from Hillary Otte.
Bys led three Bulldogs with double-figure kills recording 15. DeBerg Roth and Sims added 12 and 10 kills, respectively, while Lauerdorf distributed 36 assists. Sophomore Alana Wittenburg (Readlyn, Iowa/Wapsie Valley) directed all players with a career-high 26 digs.
Drake returns to action on Saturday (Sept. 13) as the Bulldogs tangle with in-state rival Iowa State at 12:00 p.m.
