DES MOINES, Iowa - The Drake University volleyball team rallied back to defeat the visiting Illinois State Redbirds, 3-2, at the Knapp Center Friday, Sept. 29, evening. The win was the Bulldogs' seventh-straight and opens up a 3-0 start to Missouri Valley Conference play for the first time since 1996.
Drake (14-3, 3-0 MVC) prevailed by set scores of 25-19, 25-22, 20-25, 24-26, 15-13. The Bulldogs' balanced attack was led by three hitters with double-figure kills including senior Kyla Inderski's (Urbandale, Iowa) team-high 15 kills on 45 attempts. She also chipped in 17 digs for her sixth-straight double-double. Junior Cathryn Cheek (Coppell, Texas) also added a double-double with 11 kills and 19 digs while freshman Emily Plock (Altoona, Iowa) added 10 kills on 33 attempts. Setter Paige Aspinwall (Maple Grove, Minn.) guided the offense with 33 assists and also added 11 digs for her fourth double-double of the season.
Defensively, Kylee Macke (Ankeny, Iowa) led the digs column with 30 and Natalie Fry (Allen, Texas) had a career-high seven blocks.
Illinois State (9-8, 2-2 MVC) was led by a game-high 23 kills from three-time first team All-MVC honoree Jaelyn Keene. Setter Stef Jankiewicz posted 55 assists while Courtney Pence had 42 digs.
Drake started to pull away in the middle of the first set and were able to build a comfortable lead for the rest of the way to earn the 25-19 win. Cathryn Cheek had five kills and five digs, leading the team in both categories for the first set.
The second set was all Redbirds early before the Bulldogs took a timeout trailing, 18-15. Drake came out of the timeout on fire, closing out the set on a 10-4 run to take the set, 25-22. The third set was back and forth for the majority of the set, but the Redbirds went on an 8-2 run in the middle of the set to build a small cushion. That deficit became too large for Drake to overcome, as ISU took the set 20-25 despite a late Drake push.
In the fourth set, Drake got hot late and went on an 8-3 run to take the lead at 23-20 with Inderski racking up six kills. However, Illinois State answered by winning six of the last seven points and taking the set, 26-24, to force a fifth set.
Illinois State led most of the final set, but the Bulldogs were never out of it. After trailing by as many as three, Drake tied the set at 11-11 late in the set. Another lead change and tie ensued before Cheek buried a ball on the ISU side of the court to win the set, 15-13, and the match, 3-2.
The Bulldogs continue their homestand Saturday afternoon when they host Bradley at the Knapp Center for a 7 p.m. match. Bradley is 0-4 in the MVC after falling in three sets at UNI Friday night.
