nNORMAL, Ill. – The Drake University volleyball team's appearance in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament was cut short by Indiana State as the Sycamores swept the Bulldogs, 3-0, in Thursday evening's quarterfinal contest.
The Sycamores prevailed by set scores of 25-23, 30-28 and 25-19 while hitting .206 with two players in double-figure kills.
"Indiana State came out and played very well and executed," said Drake head coach
Darrin McBroom. "We came out tentative after the first set and once we started playing tentative, we couldn't find rhythm and get into our game."
Drake (23-10, 12-6 MVC) was paced by
Odessa Cody's (Chicago, Ill.) 11 kills on 27 attempts while
Cathryn Cheek (Coppell, Texas) added 10 kills.
Paige Aspinwall (Dayton, Minn.) posted a double-double with 21 assists and 10 digs for her ninth double-double of the season and third against Indiana State.
"I'm so proud of
Odessa Cody," McBroom said. "She hasn't gotten a lot of attention or honors, but she's someone who walked on four years ago, earned a starting role last year then tonight in her final match had an outstanding performance. She did a phenomenal job for our team tonight."
The Bulldogs' MVC Tournament appearance was their first since 2010 and first meeting with Indiana State in the six-team tournament field. The tournament berth came following one of the most successful regular seasons in program history as the team's 23 wins are the third most in program history and most since 2010. Additionally, the team's 12 conference wins were the second most by the program in an 18-game MVC schedule. Earlier in the day Thursday, Nov. 23, three Bulldogs collected All-MVC honors as senior
Kyla Inderski (Urbandale, Iowa) and junior
Cathryn Cheek (Coppell, Texas) earned first team All-MVC honors while
Emily Plock (Altoona, Iowa) was named to the All-Freshman team. Inderski and Cheek's inclusion on the first team marked just the second time in program history and the first since 1996 that two Bulldogs have earned first-team honors.
"It still remains an amazing season for Drake volleyball," McBroom said. "They've taken such huge strides and this team has done some much to elevate Drake volleyball. It has been an amazing season and it's unfortunate it had to end on a negative note.
After falling behind by a two sets to none margin in the match, Drake's offense was unable to get in gear following the intermission and hit .091 in the third set with Indiana State using a 7-0 run to take a 19-11 lead late en route to the 25-19 set win.
The Bulldogs jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the first set behind Aspinwall's serving with four of those points coming via kills. The Sycamores pulled back within two points quickly at 8-6 and a later 5-0 run capped by back-to-back blocks tied the match at 14-14. The match proceeded neck-and-neck until three-straight points gave the Sycamores their first lead of the match at 21-20 to force a Drake timeout. Those three points were part of a larger 7-3 run that Indiana State used to pull away for a 25-23 win in the first set. Gross had three of her four kills for ISU in the first set during that span.
Neither led by more than three points in the second set until ISU took a 17-12 lead before Drake rattled off five-straight points, four of them from the combined efforts of Cheek and Fry to tie the match at 17-17. Each team clawed for every successive point with neither able to accumulate a two-point cushion until a kill from ISU's Nikkie White gave the Sycamores a 30-28 advantage for a 2-0 lead in the match that they would put away in the third set.
