DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake University volleyball team collected its 18^th win of the year and improved to 7-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 3-1 win over visiting SIU Saturday evening at the Knapp Center.
 
The win was the Bulldogs' 11^th in their last 12 matches and snapped SIU's 10-game win streak against Drake. The Bulldogs prevailed by set scores of 25-16, 25-22, 17-25, 25-16.
 
"Our team played amazingly well last night and tonight we didn't play as sharp, but I'm proud of our team for holding it together and getting a win," said Drake head coach Darrin McBroom. "We came out of the gate, looked great in the first set, then took a little off and didn't get back to that kind of peak performance. We had four hitters hit about .250 tonight and if we can keep doing that, we'll keep winning. Developing a balanced attack is the ultimate goal and ultimate threat. If we can keep getting more hitters involved, we'll keep improving."
 
Drake (18-4, 7-1 MVC) had four hitters hit .250 or better with freshman Emily Plock (Altoona, Iowa) leading the way by hitting .382 with 13 kills and no errors on 34 attempts plus a career-high five aces.
 
"I'm proud of Emily tonight, she struggled last night, and we're ok with that because we want to see how players respond to adversity," McBroom said. "She came in today and told me she had thought about last night and what she needed to change tonight. I thought that to see a freshman go home process that analysis, articulate what she needed to do differently and put that into action tonight was impressive.
 
Kyla Inderski (Urbandale, Iowa) added another double-double, her 13^th of the season, with 15 kills and 14 digs. Kylee Macke (Ankeny, Iowa) continued her strong defense with 25 digs.
 
"Our serve/receive has been strong. Only giving up two aces in the last two matches is keeping us in the game," McBroom added. "If we can keep passing well, we're going to be in most matches."
 
SIU (4-15, 3-5 MVC) was paced by Andrea Estrada's 13 kills on 41 attempts and 15 digs. Patience Brown and Nellie Fredriksson led the Salukis at the net with six blocks apiece.
 
Drake led early in the first set, but SIU pulled within three points, 17-14, before Drake answered with an 8-2 run to close the set by a 25-16 margin. The second set included five ties and three lead changes until a Plock kill, one of five she had in the set, gave Drake the 25-22 win.
 
Following the intermission, Drake struggled to get restarted and never led in the third set. SIU built up a 20-13 lead late via an 11-5 run en route to the 25-17 set win. Estrada recorded seven of her kills in the set and hit a staggering .718. However, the Bulldogs put the clamps on her in the fourth set by limiting her to three kills on 11 attempts to coast to the 25-16 win. With the set tied at 10-10, the Bulldogs engineered a 10-2 run, largely behind Macke's serving, to push past the Salukis for the win.
 
The Bulldogs return to action Tuesday evening with a trip to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to face in-state MVC rival UNI.  The No. 20 Panthers fell to visiting Missouri State Saturday evening, their first MVC loss of the season.
 
"We're going to try to rest up the next couple of days and get our legs back underneath us," McBroom said. It's the toughest place in the conference to play and we're playing against a top-25 team on their home court. Everything will be stacked against us and we're excited to answer that call and play a great game."
 
First serve is set for 7 p.m. in the McLeod Center.