The Bulldogs (7-6) played their first 12 matches away from home prior to Tuesday's match against the Leathernecks (2-9). WIU took the match by set scores of 25-23, 16-25, 25-19, 12-25, 15-13.

“We're missing our middles (middle blockers) and only have true middle in the game due to injury, so that obviously has a real impact,” head coach Darrin McBroom said. “We're a team that experienced some success and needs to learn to deal with success. We're going through some growing pains right now.”

Junior Makena Schoene (Seattle, Wash.) led the Bulldogs with 20 kills on 42 attempts. Grace Schofield (Mundelein, Ill.) and Kyla Inderski (Urbandale, Iowa) each tallied 13 kills. Defensively, Inderski and Rachel Goettl (Rice Lake, Wis.) had 20 digs each. Peyton Crosser led WIU with 13 kills.

The first set was tight throughout with neither team leading by more than four points in the 25-23 WIU win that saw Schofield notch five of her kills. Drake stormed back to take the second set, 25-16, behind four kills each from Schofield, Schoene and Shelby Daum (Battle Creek, Neb.). Drake committed just three errors in the set to him .387 as an 11-5 run allowed the Bulldogs to pull away.

However, WIU retook possession of the momentum in the third set and led nearly wire-to-wire to take a 2-1 lead. Drake answered that with a dominating fourth set to tie the match as the Bulldogs rolled to an impressive 25-12 win in the set. The defense allowed just four kills in the set at WIU hit -.120. Rebecca Brown (Bentonville, Ark.) held serve for five-straight points to build an early cushion and Schoene later served up four points to cruise into the fifth set.

That dominance did not extend to the fifth as a 3-0 WIU run gave the Leathernecks space they would not relinquish. The Bulldogs pulled within one point, 13-12, on a block from Schofield and Katie Dulek (Lenexa, Kan.) but Drake could get no closer as WIU escaped the Knapp Center with the win. The loss was the Bulldogs first five-set loss in four such games this season.

“I feel like we we're not playing with confidence,” McBroom said of the fifth set. “Early in the season we had no idea where we were at as a team and were playing loose. Now we have something to lose and that's a mental challenge to be loose and play to win, not to play not to lose.”

The Bulldogs will aim to rebound from Tuesday's loss at the Hawkeye Invitational this weekend where the Bulldogs will play four matches in two days against the Coastal Carolina, Gardner Webb and the host, Iowa. Action begins on Friday, Sept. 18 against Coastal Carolina at 9 a.m. followed by a 5 p.m. match against Gardner-Webb.