EVANSVILLE, IND. -- Evansville handed the Drake women's volleyball team its first loss of the season with a 3-2 victory in the Missouri Valley Conference opener for both teams Friday night.

The Bulldogs dropped the first two sets, 25-23, 25-17, before rallying to tie the match with 25-22 and 25-18 victories.

However, the Purple Aces won the decisive fifth set, 15-12, scoring the last three points.

Drake had boasted the nation's best record entering the match at 14-0. The Bulldogs will play at Southern Illinois Saturday. Evansville improved to 10-1.

"We had a target on our back," said Drake volleyball coach Phil McDaniel. "Everyone in our league wants to be the first one to hand us a loss. We're weren't prepared mentally.

"I was disappointed with the way we started. Evansville came out fired up and we didn't execute our defense, We came out scattered.

"We ran our offense in the third and fourth sets and controlled the tempo. The ball didn't bounce our way in the final set. We were unlucky."

Senior Angela Bys (Marion, Iowa) led Drake with 16 kills, while sophomore Emily Heffernen (Manchester, Iowa) had 15 and senior Alisa DeBerg Roth (Hudson, Iowa) had 12.

Junior setter Caitlin Johnson (Sycamore, Ill.) had 44 assists. Senior libero Alana Wittenburg (Readlyn, Iowa) collected 39 digs.