VALPARAISO, Ind. – The Drake volleyball team wrapped up its weekend road trip as it took on Valparaiso on Saturday evening. The Bulldogs continued their winning ways taking down the Beacons in four sets, 3-1.
 
Drake found a groove in the early makings of the first set and took a quick lead over the Beacons following a Macy Daufeldt kill, 10-6. A few moments later, the Bulldogs expanded their lead to 18-9 after taking advantage of some Valparaiso errors and going on a 5-0 run. In control of the period, the Bulldogs staved off a late push from the Beacons and Aniyah Davis secured the winning point with a kill, 25-19.
 
The second set began with Drake and Valparaiso trading points back-and-forth, but then the Beacons claimed a lead at 10-7 following a 4-0 scoring streak. Shortly after, the deficit increased for Drake as Valparaiso went on another run, this time 5-0, to make the score 15-8. The Bulldogs battled back, however, and cut Valpo's lead down to two points at 20-18 when Megan Witte scored a kill. Facing set point, Drake made a late push and rallied off four-straight points to put the period at 24-23, but the comeback came up short with the Beacons taking the next point to even the match at one set apiece.
 
Drake and Valparaiso continued the back-and-forth action into the third as the two teams came to a stalemate at the 9-9 mark. The Bulldogs then went to Daufeldt who went on her own personal 4-0 run with a trio of kills and a block assist to jump out to their biggest lead at 19-14. The Beacons answered right back, though winning six of the of the next seven to knot the set at 20-20. Drake wouldn't be denied, however, and countered with winning five of the following six points to take the set, 25-21.
 
The Bulldogs burst out ahead in the fourth set and were propelled forward due to a 7-0 scoring run early on. It was all Drake the rest of the way as it developed a seven-point lead with Kuhn recording another kill at the 18-11 point. The Bulldogs went on and sealed the set, 25-17 and the match, 3-1.
 
"Valparaiso is a really tough defensive team, and they can challenge you and wear you down, so to be able to get this win I thought displayed our resiliency," Drake head coach Darrin McBroom said. "We can hit and hit and hit and they would just keep making plays. With the depth and diversity of players we have, however, we can battle through games like that where it's back-and-forth all night long."
 
Kuhn led the offensive attack on the night and tallied 19 kills in the match to lead all scorers. A trio of Bulldogs ended the night posting double-doubles in the box score with Daufeldt, Witte and Addison Beagle. Daufeldt and Witte matched each other with 12 digs while Witte tacked on 14 kills and Daufeldt had 12. Beagle secured her double-double with 12 digs also and then dished out 25 assists. Defensively, Jada Wills racked up 37 digs on the night.
 
Drake returns home next weekend for a pair of matches versus Murray State (Oct. 12) and Belmont (Oct. 13). Both matches from the Knapp Center will start at 6 p.m.