EVANSVILLE, Ind. - The Evansville volleyball team rallied to beat the Drake volleyball team, 3-1, Friday night in Evansville, Ind. in the first match of a two-match road trip for the Bulldogs.

The Bulldogs took the opening set but the Aces rallied to win the next three to improve to 6-11 overall and 2-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference. The loss drops Drake's record to 1-13 overall and 0-4 in the MVC.

Jadranka Tramosljanin (Ruma, Serbia) and Bentley Mancini (Burnsville, Minn.) led the Drake attack with 12 kills each and Halli Meyer (Bettendorf, Iowa) dished out a career-high 29 assists. Cassie Effken (Lincoln, Neb.) and Katie Dulek (Lenexa, Kan.) played well in the middle for the Bulldogs with eight and seven kills, respectively and each finished with just two attack errors. Effken added six block assists to tie her career-high.

Drake took the opening set as Tramosljanin scored three of the final five points to help the Bulldogs win 25-20. Drake was solid on its side of the net with 17 kills and just five errors. Tramosljanin led the Blue and White in the frame with six kills and five digs.

The second set was won by the Aces, 25-19. The Bulldogs held an early 12-9 lead but they were unable to hold off the Aces who tallied 16 kills with just three attack errors. The Bulldogs were down 20-19 after a kill by Amanda Platte (Mount Vernon, Iowa) but the Aces ripped off five straight to square the match.

In the third set the Bulldogs fell behind 5-1 early as the Aces had three kills by Ring. The Bulldogs battled back to tie the score at 11-11 after a kill by Mancini but the Aces responded with a 9-4 run to stake a 20-15 lead and force Drake to take their second timeout of the set. A kill by Effken cut the deficit to 20-16 but the Aces scored five of the final eight points to take a 2-1 lead.

Drake fell behind 8-2 in the fourth set and was forced to take their first timeout. Evansville extended its lead to 14-4 after the timeout but Drake fought back with three straight points that forced an Aces timeout. The Bulldogs were unable to mount a comeback as the Aces went on to win the set 25-12 and take the match.

The Bulldogs will return to the court tomorrow afternoon at Southern Illinois. First serve versus the Salukis will be at 3 p.m. Live stats will be available at www.godrakebulldogs.com.