DES MOINES, Iowa. – The Drake volleyball team played its final weekend home match of the season as it hosted the UIC Flames from the Knapp Center on Saturday evening. The Bulldogs were able to celebrate their seniors on Senior Day as they secured a 3-1 win over the Flames.
The first set saw the Bulldogs grab an early advantage as a kill from
Thea Rotto put the score at 9-6. As play moved along, however, the Flames chipped away at the Bulldog lead and eventually tied it up at 15-15 following a 3-0 rally. Using that momentum, UIC went on another run to take its first lead and forced Drake to call a timeout at the 19-16 mark. The Bulldogs had an immediate response out of the break with a 4-0 scoring streak of their own, featuring kills from
Ashlynn Kuhn and
Megan Witte, to retake the lead, 20-19. The Flames pulled within a point late, but
Macy Daufeldt put the set to rest with scoring a kill for the 25-23 win.
After trading blows in the early goings of the second set, Drake took the lead off a 4-0 rally to put the score at 12-7. Drake never relinquished its lead from there as it increased its lead to at 18-13 mark as Kuhn led another 4-0 run with a pair of scores. It wasn't much later that
Madison Geise gave the Bulldogs another set victory securing a kill to close the period, 25-20.
The Flames and the Bulldogs started out the third set with more back-and-forth play eventually coming to a 9-9 stalemate. UIC then found a bit of a rhythm and stretched a lead out to six points at 20-14. Drake had a response, however, and ripped off a 6-0 run, highlighted by Kuhn and Witte scoring four of the six points, to bring the set back to even at 20-20. The comeback effort fell short for the Bulldogs, though as UIC rallied with a 3-0 scoring streak to win the set, 25-21.
Drake came out in the fourth set and seized an early lead winning the first six points. But once again the Flames battled back and tied it up at 8-8. The Bulldogs remained composed in their efforts, however, and regained the lead over the course of the middle stages taking advantage of a few UIC errors to gain an eight-point advantage, 20-12, as Witte logged another kill. Moments later, Drake put an end to the match on 3-0 run capped with a service ace from Daufeldt.
Witte led the Bulldogs in scoring on her Senior Day racking up 19 kills, while her fellow senior Kuhn was not far behind with 14 kills. Daufeldt recorded yet another double-double performance with 13 kills and 11 digs and
Addison Beagle finished one dig away from a double-double with 33 assists and nine digs.
Jada Wills provided the defense for the Dogs totaling 37 digs with her Senior Day performance.
Drake takes its final road trip of the season next weekend to take on Southern Illinois (Nov. 15) and Missouri State (Nov. 16).
