DES MOINES, Iowa — The Drake University volleyball team earned its 22nd win of the year and improved 11-3 in the Missouri Valley Conference with a 3-1 win over visiting Indiana State Friday, Nov. 3, evening at the Knapp Center.
 
The Bulldogs hit .287, their second highest percentage of the conference season, to earn their second win of the season against Indiana State in by set scores of 25-18, 23-25, 25-17, and 25-19.
 
"Tonight's win was big for our program and sends us to the conference tournament for the first time since 2010," said Drake head coach Darrin McBroom. "That's a huge benchmark for our program and we keep holding our conference standing. We're excited about that. There were few let-ups tonight but we had four players hit over .300 and it was a pretty phenomenal performance for us offensively."
 
Drake (22-6, 11-3 MVC) was led by junior Cathryn Cheek (Coppell, Texas) with 20 kills, followed by senior Kyla Inderski (Urbandale, Iowa) and freshman Emily Plock (Altoona, Iowa) with 15 and 12 kills, respectively. Inderski also had 22 digs and freshman Kylee Macke (Ankeny, Iowa) had 17 digs. Paige Aspinwall had a career-high 50 of the team's 63 assists.
 
Laura Gross led Indiana State (7-18, 5-8 MVC) with 13 kills. Steph Bindernagel contributed with 14 digs.
 
Drake led early in the first set at 4-1 and maintained the lead via a 5-0 run, with two kills from Cheek and Inderski. Cheek set the pace for the Bulldogs with seven kills and four digs to win the set 25-18.
 
Play in the second set was much more competitive. The Bulldogs took the lead early in the set once again, but the Sycamores fired back with a 7-0 run to lead for the first time in the match. The Bulldogs fought back and tied the Sycamores 23-23 near the end of the set, but ultimately fell, 23-25.
 
In the first half of the third set, Drake fought to keep the lead despite a 4-0 push from Indiana State. The Bulldogs fired back with six kills from Cheek and seven digs from Inderski to win the set, 24-17.
 
Drake had a great start in the fourth set with a 7-0 run. Inderski and Aspinwall set the pace of play with seven digs and 15 assists, respectively. Drake kept at least a two-point lead against Indiana State for the remainder of the set to win 25-19 and the match 3-1.
 
"We're still having to learn how to win and it's a new learning experience coming into matches that we're supposed to win," McBroom said. "It's a new kind of pressure that we're learning how to play through and they're doing awesome at dealing with that pressure."
 
The Bulldogs continue conference play at the Knapp Center on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 7 p.m. against Evansville. The match will be broadcast on The Valley On ESPN3.