COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Drake University volleyball team collected a pair of wins Friday during the first day of the Mizzou Invitational in Columbia, Mo. The Bulldogs opened the day by coming from behind to defeat Ohio, 3-2, and cruised past Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the afternoon, 3-0, for the team's 11th win of the season.
Drake (11-1) defeated Ohio by set scores of 14-25, 25-23, 25-20, 18-25, 15-8, and rolled past TAMU CC, 25-23, 25-20, 25-19.
Senior Grace Schofield (Mundelein, Ill.) led Drake with 28 kills on the afternoon and 17 digs while
Gillian Gergen (Janesville, Iowa) added 17 kills on .317 hitting with four blocks.
Kylee Macke (Ankeny, Iowa) anchored the defense with 32 digs for a 4.0 digs per set average on the afternoon.
Schofield recorded 16 of her kills in the five-set match against Ohio while Emily Plock (Altoona, Iowa) added 12 kills on 22 attempts as the Bulldogs were held to .139 hitting overall after hitting .074 and .086 in the opening sets.
Ohio closed the fourth set on a 9-2 run fueled by six Drake errors to tie the match at 2-2. The Bulldogs responded by capitalizing on Bobcat errors to create an 8-3 lead to open the fifth set that Ohio would not challenge for the remainder of the set to give Drake its first experience and win in a five-set match this season.
The Bulldogs, who have won 33 of the 39 sets they have played this season returned to their habit of 3-set wins against Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The Bulldogs hit .276 to comfortably defeat the Islanders with four hitters converting at a .250 or better clip. Gergen led that parade with a career-high 11 kills on 19 attempts and just one error.
Drake faced a 17-12 deficit in the first set before Caitlyn Smith's (Marion, Iowa) serving keyed a 10-1 run to give the Bulldogs a 22-18 lead and eventual 25-23 win in the set. Drake used a similar 6-0 run in the second set to break a stalemate and push towards the 25-20 win and never trailed in the third set to dispatch the Islanders in three sets.
The Bulldogs play their final match at the Mizzou Invitational Saturday, Sept. 15 against the hosts, Missouri. First serve is set for 2:30 p.m. CDT and will be broadcast on the SEC Network+.
