VERMILLION, S.D. - The Drake University volleyball team
dropped a five-set decision at South Dakota Monday, falling to 7-16 overall.
Game scores were 18-25, 25-19, 27-25, 10-15.
Junior Bentley Mancini (Burnsville, Minn/Apple Valley) led
Drake with 14 kills in 34 swings for a .294 hitting percentage. Mancini's 14
kills rank as the second-highest mark of her career. She tallied 18 kills at
Kansas State on Sept. 12.
Down two sets to one and trailing 20-19 in game four, the
Bulldogs took advantage of seven South Dakota errors to take a 27-25 victory.
After Drake took a 3-2 lead in the fifth set, the Coyotes went on a four-point run to
grab a 6-3 advantage early. Two-straight kills by freshman outside hitter
Kendall Kritenbrink gave South Dakota its 14th and 15th points of the game and
the match victory. Kritenbrink led all players with 28 kills on 74 swings.
Senior setter Caitlin Johnson (Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore)
notched her 10th double-double of the season and second-straight with 31
assists and 19 digs. Johnson added three kills, a block and a service ace to
her total.
Four Drake players totaled double-digit digs, led by Johnson's
19. Sarah Madden (Van Meter, Iowa/Adel-DeSoto-Minburn) tallied 18 while junior
Whitney Westrum (Waukee, Iowa/Waukee) notched 11 and Erika Price (Littleton,
Colo./Dakota Ridge) totaled 13. South Dakota outdug Drake 87-77.
The Coyotes leveraged a big advantage in the kill column to
claim victory. The Bulldogs tallied just 48 kills compared to South Dakota's
70.
The Bulldogs return to Missouri Valley Conference action
with a Friday match against Evansville. First serve is at 7 p.m.
