MACOMB, Ill. – The Drake University volleyball team opened up its 2015 season with a pair of wins on Friday, Aug. 28 at the Hampton Inn Leatherneck Invitational hosted by Western Illinois.

The Bulldogs opened the tournament with a 3-1 (25-12, 25-17, 18-25, 25-22) win over DePaul before defeating SIU Edwardsville, 3-2 (22-25, 25-20, 21-25, 25-20, 15-10) in the evening match.

Sophomore Kyla Inderski (Urbandale, Iowa) paced Drake in the opener with 18 kills and matched a team high with 13 digs. Defensively, the Bulldogs held a 9.5-to-4 advantage in blocks with Capris Quaites (Omaha, Neb.) tallying seven block assists while Makena Schoene (Seattle, Wash.) added four to go along with her seven kills and 12 digs.

The Bulldogs rolled in the first two sets of the match, leading the entire way during a 25-12 rout in set one and trailing only briefly in 25-17 win of the second set. However, the Blue Demons used a 9-2 run during the third set to extend the match.

The fourth set was a continuation of the competitiveness of the third with 11 ties and six lead changes before the Bulldogs closed the game on a 6-1 run to win the match. Back-to-back kills from Quaites and Shelby Daum (Battle Creek, Neb.) started the spurt and Schoene ended the match with a kill from the set of Rebecca Brown (Bentonville, Ark.), who finished the match with 17 assists.

“It was nice to come out and get a win to open the season,” Drake head coach Darrin McBroom said. “DePaul is a strong program from the Big East and our team came out strong and set the tone in the first set. I was proud we were able to regroup and come out strong in that fourth set to get the first win of the season.”

Inderski and Schoene also led the offensive attack in the second match with 14 and 15 kills, respectively. Brown engineered those kills with 28 assists while Chandelle Davidson (Gretna, Neb.) had 17. Defensively, Inderski and Michelle Thommi (Omaha, Neb.) each had 16 digs while Katie Dulek (Lenexa, Kan.) and Quaites each tallied four blocks.

After splitting the first two sets, the Bulldogs fell behind in the decisive fifth set, 9-7. Back-to-back kills from Schoene evened the tally and a pair of blocks from Schoene, Quaites and Taylor Zant (Libertyville, Ill.) gave the Bulldogs a quick 11-9 lead. An SIUE error, followed by another Schoene kill, capped a 6-0 Drake run that gave the squad a 13-9 cushion en route to taking the set and match, 15-10.

“We struggled to put everything together at once in the second match,” McBroom said. “We persevered and challenged our team to step up and come back from the third set and we managed to break away behind the serving of Katie Dulek.”

The Bulldogs continue play at the Hampton Inn Leatherneck Invitational on Saturday with an 11 a.m. match against the host, Western Illinois, followed by a 5 p.m. tilt against Akron.

“It's great to open the season 2-0 and we'll get ready for two more tomorrow,” McBroom added.