The Drake University volleyball team nearly made program history in a defensive battle with Bradley Saturday evening at the Knapp Center. The two teams combined for a staggering 243 digs in the 3-1 Bradley win.
 
Drake had 117 digs, the fourth-most in program history, and Bradley's 126 digs were the second-most in a four-set match in the nation this season.
 
A career-high 34 digs by Kylee Macke (Ankeny, Iowa) led Drake's (7-13, 1-6 MVC) defensive efforts. Fellow defender Madi Ford (Coralville, Iowa) recorded a season-high 22 digs and Emily Plock (Altoona, Iowa) also added 14 digs in addition to her career-high 28 kills. Those 28 kills came on a game-high 88 attempts in the loss.
 
Bradley had four players notch double-figure kills with Rachel Pranger's 19 leading the way, followed by 16 kills and 32 digs from Hannah Thompson. Libero Emma Raleigh added an MVC record 48 digs for the Braves.
 
Three of the four sets required extra points to determine a winner as Bradley (8-9, 4-2 MVC) pushed past the Bulldogs by set scores of 29-27, 26-24, 25-27, 25-13.
 
The opening set featured 22 ties and 10 lead changes as Plock recorded nine of her kills in the opening set. Neither team led by more than two points at any juncture in the set and the teams faced a total of three set points before Bradley came out on top.
 
Drake rallied back from a late, two-point deficit in the second set to take a 24-23 lead, but back-to-back Drake errors followed by a Bradley kill pushed the set in favor of the Braves, 26-24.
 
Facing a 2-0 deficit in the match, the Bulldogs rallied back in the third set as Gillian Gergen (Janesville, Iowa) recorded three of her four kills on the night in the set while Elle Tubbs added three. Tubbs finished the night with eight kills out of the middle.
 
Drake again faced a late deficit in the third set, but Plock helped serve up back-to-back errors by Bradley to give the Bulldogs the 27-25 win in another back-and-forth set that included 12 ties.
 
Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, they only mustered four kills on 38 attempts in the fourth set as Bradley's Raleigh successfully defended 12 of the Bulldogs 38 attacks herself. Bradley opened the set with a 7-1 lead and was never challenged in rolling to the 25-13 win to take the match., 3-1.
 
Drake returns to the road for its next match, a Friday, Oct. 18, match at MVC leader, UNI.