CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Drake University volleyball team went 1-1 on the final day of the EIU Panther Classic on Saturday, Sept. 10, afternoon to claim second place in the two-day tournament. The Bulldogs opened up the day by sweeping Louisiana Tech, 3-0, before falling to tournament champion Bowling Green, 3-1, in the afternoon.
On Friday, Drake defeated the tournament host, Eastern Illinois, to finish the weekend 2-1 and improve the Bulldogs' season record to 8-3. Additionally,
Makena Schoene (Seattle, Wash.) and
Kameo Pope (Belle Plaine, Iowa) were named to the EIU Panther Classic all-tournament team.
Schoene, who had a season-high 17 kills on Friday evening, finished the tournament with 37 kills while hitting .264 with 11 blocks. Pope had 19 kills and 11 blocks on the weekend.
"Overall it was another good weekend for us with a second-place finish," said Drake head coach
Darrin McBroom. "we thought we had a shot at Bowling Green but just couldn't put enough things together at the right time to make that happen. They are a solid team and we were unable to match their offense today."
Drake defeated Louisiana Tech by set scores of 25-19, 26-24, 25-15, with Schoene registering 11 kills on 23 attempts with no errors while
Kyla Inderski (Urbandale, Iowa) added 11 kills.
Odessa Cody (Chicago, Ill.) chipped in with a career-high 10 kills.
Everybody had good opportunities today to make positive contributions," McBroom added. "Odessa [Cody] stepped up as did
Sara Jensen with some time at setter.
Grace Schofield had 11 aces on the weekend and has done really well lately in the serving game."
Drake opened the match with a 10-3 lead and Louisiana Tech pulled within three points four times late in the set before a pair of errors and Pope ace gave Drake the one set lead. In the second set, Drake used an early 4-0 run behind Inderski's serving to take a 10-6 lead. However, a later 5-1 surge by Louisiana Tech erased that advantage and gave Tech a 21-20 lead. The teams swapped points until back-to-back kills from Schoene and
Capris Quaites (Omaha, Neb.) pushed the Bulldogs to the 26-24 advantage. Tech stayed within two points early in the third set until an 8-2 Drake run opened up an 18-10 lead. A later 5-0 run behind more of Inderski's serving put away the set and match with the 25-15 margin.
In the afternoon match, Drake hit just .086 as Bowling Green opened up a quick two-set lead with a pair of 25-20 wins. However, Drake rallied back in the third set with a 25-23 win. Neither team led by more than four points in the set until six-straight points from the Bulldogs gave Drake an 18-16 lead. Drake sealed the set with a block from Schoene and Pope followed by a Kill from Schoene to force a fourth set. Unfortunately for Drake, a 6-0 BGSU spurt put the Falcons up 15-9 and Drake was unable to rally back, dropping the set 25-15, and the match, 3-1.
"There was a lot of good progress this weekend, but we just couldn't put it together in the final match," McBroom said. "This is the second weekend in a row that we finished second in a tournament so we've opened our season with a tournament title and two second place finishes."
Drake will have the opportunity to improve on that early season tournament record next weekend with three matches at the Western Illinois Tournament, Sept. 16-17, in Macomb, Ill.
