OXFORD, Miss. – Drake volleyball concluded its weekend with a match against Little Rock on Saturday afternoon as part of the Ole Miss Invitational. The Bulldogs concluded their trip down south on a high note sweeping the Trojans, 3-0. 
 
The Bulldogs and Trojans began their match with some back-and-forth action until Drake gained some separation taking advantage of a couple Little Rock errors to go up 15-11. Little Rock countered over the next few points, however, and battled its way back to tie the period at 19-19. Down the stretch, the Bulldogs leaned heavily on Macy Daufeldt on the offensive end, and she delivered scoring three kills out of a 4-0 run that helped Drake win the set, 25-20.
 
In the second set, Drake was out to a fast start using a 6-0 scoring streak to take an early advantage, 7-3. The Bulldogs then used another key scoring run, this time of 5-0 featuring a pair of service aces from Megan Witte, to increase their lead to 19-10. Little Rock did make a late push and cut the Bulldog lead down to three at the 20-17 mark, but the Bulldogs stayed resilient and claimed their second set of the match, 25-19.
 
Little Rock came out aggressive in the third set and quickly jumped ahead 6-1, but the Bulldogs slowly chipped away over the next stages of the period and pulled to within three at the 15-12 mark. Following a timeout, the momentum shifted in the Bulldogs favor as a 5-0 rally, highlighted by back-to-back service aces by Addison Beagle, saw them take their first lead of the set, 17-15. Drake never gave back the lead from that point on and took the set, 25-19, and the match, 3-0.
 
"I think we were a little tired after yesterday with this tournament being a long trip, but I'm thrilled with how we came out today," Drake head coach Darrin McBroom said. "Little Rock has had a fantastic start to their season, and they came out and gave us a really competitive match. I was glad to see that we were able to maintain our composure and hold on for the win. Now heading into next weekend, with it being our last weekend before MVC play, we just need to get in the gym and fine tune some things to continue to move us forward."
 
Daufeldt led all players with 18 kills in the match and secured another double-double adding 10 digs to her stat line to go along with two service aces. Witte was next in line on the offensive end with seven kills for the Bulldogs, while Beagle tallied 30 assists in the match. On the defensive side, Bliss Beck racked up seven total blocks, two of which were solo efforts and Jada Wills registered nine digs for the second-most by a Bulldog on the day.
 
The Bulldogs will take to the court next at the Hawkeye Invite in Coralville, Iowa, where they will play in three matches against Saint Louis (Sep. 19), South Dakota (Sep. 20), and Iowa (Sep. 21).