DES MOINES, Iowa — The Drake University volleyball team suffered just its third Missouri Valley Conference loss of the season with a 3-0 loss to Valparaiso Saturday, Oct. 20, at the Knapp Center.
 
The Crusaders hit a season-best .295 in the win to avenge an earlier 3-0 loss to the Bulldogs in September. Valparaiso defeated Drake in the 3-0 sweep by set scores of 25-12, 25-22 and 25-15.
 
"Tonight was definitely a rough night for our team, but a lot of credit to Valparaiso," said Drake head coach Darrin McBroom. "We beat them at their place and they definitely came in on a mission to even that score. We got off to slow start and when you do that, it's hard to get traction. We never found rhythm tonight."
 
Drake (18-6, 7-3 MVC) was led by freshman Natalie Fry (Allen, Texas) and senior Kyla Inderski (Urbandale, Iowa) with nine and eight kills, respectively. Fry's nine kills came on 17 attempts with just one error. Freshman Kylee Macke (Ankeny, Iowa) also contributed with 14 digs while sophomore Paige Aspinwall (Dayton, Minn.) had a 22-assist, 12-dig double-double.
 
"Natalie had a good night, and we passed well," McBroom said. "But offensively we couldn't terminate and defensively we couldn't slow them down."
 
Taylor Graboski led Valparaiso (12-10, 4-5 MVC) with 12 kills on 20 attempts while Katherine Carlson added 12 kills. Libero Rylee Cookerly recorded 18 digs for a Valpo team that had 69 digs in three sets. The Crusaders came into the match leading the nation in digs per set.
 
"In the Missouri Valley Conference, there is no easy match," McBroom said. "This is a key learning point for our team. We keep saying our team is young and we start four freshmen. As a team, we've always been the underdog, but now we've beaten seven MVC teams and we need to learn how to play with a target on our back and meet that challenge."
 
In the first set, the score was tied early before the Crusaders answered with an 8-0 run that was part of a larger 13-2 run to close the set for the 25-12 win. The Bulldogs bounced back and held the lead well into the second set 18-12, but the Crusaders pushed back and had another big run, this one a 13-4 spurt, to take the set, 25-22. Play in the third set was similar to the first two sets with the teams playing close early until another big Valpo run of 10-2 gave the Crusaders plenty of cushion to cruise to the 25-15 and take the match, 3-0.
 
The Bulldogs continue conference during their current two-game homestand against Loyola Saturday, Oct. 21, at 7 p.m. The match will be broadcast on The Valley On ESPN3.