PEORIA, Ill. – The Drake volleyball team kept its winning streak alive on Saturday afternoon and extended it to five games with a hard-fought victory over the Bradley Braves from the Renaissance Coliseum in five sets.
The first set of the afternoon was a close one all the way through and in the early goings Drake and Bradley matched each other point-for-point coming together at the 9-9 mark. Bradley gained a slight advantage a few moments later and took a 13-11lead, but the Bulldogs hung around and eventually brought the frame even again after a kill by
Kacia Brown to make it 18-18. After Bradley took another two-point lead at 21-19 and forced Drake to call a timeout, the Bulldogs came out of the break and proceeded to win four of the next five points to jump in front, 23-22, which forced a Bradley timeout. The Braves won the following point to put the score at 23-23, but Drake took the following two points to win the set, 25-23, with a combo block by
Aniyah Davis and
Macy Daufeldt and a Braves attack error.
In the second set, Bradley was out to a fast start as it doubled up the Bulldogs early on, 8-4. Drake tried to chip away at the deficit and pulled within one at the 9-8 mark, but by the time of the media timeout, Bradley had extended its lead out to 15-10. Down the stretch, Bradley used a pair of 3-0 runs to further distance itself from Drake and win the set, 25-14.
Drake flipped the script in the third and used a 4-0 scoring spurt, capped by a
Katie Quick service ace, to grab an 8-4 lead early on. The Bulldogs service game stayed strong in the middle part of the frame as
Addison Beagle recorded back-to-back aces to make it 13-8 in favor of Drake and force a Bradley timeout. Later on, the Bulldogs went up by seven at 19-12 following consecutive kills from Daufeldt and Davis and it wasn't much later that Daufeldt secured the set with another kill, 25-17.
The fourth set of the match proved to be the biggest duel between the two sides as it went deep into extra points. Drake held the early advantage in the frame with a 10-6 lead and added another service ace this time coming from Davis. A run from Bradley, however, cut the Bulldog lead down to just one at 13-12. The Bulldogs eventually increased their lead back to six at the 22-16 mark following a service error from Bradley, but the Braves wouldn't go away and rallied with a 6-0 run to even the score at 23-23. Drake and Bradley then went on to trade points for an extended stretch hitting the 30-30 point. A final 3-0 run from the Braves, however, pushed Bradley to the set win, 33-31.
With the match reaching the decisive fifth set, neither side gave an inch in the early points, but Drake eventually broke through with a 3-0 scoring run, featuring kills by Brown and Daufeldt, to go up 9-5. Bradley did counter with a run of its own and pulled within a point, 10-9, but Drake never gave up the lead and pushed ahead, 13-9, using kills from Brown and Beck. Still, Bradley fought back once again and made it a one-point contest at 14-13, but in the end,
Caroline Smith ended the match with a kill, 15-13.
"Tonight was a real test for our team," Drake head coach
Darrin McBroom said. "It was a tough win, but our players preserved through adversity and found a way to win. Playing Bradley at their place is always a formidable task."
Four Bulldogs reached double-digits in the kill column in the match and were led by Daufeldt with 21. Brown (17), Smith (13), and Beck (10), followed in order. Daufeldt also led the Bulldogs on the defensive side of the net with 17 digs. Beagle was the leader in assists in the match for Drake with 32, while Quick added 26 of her own.
Emaline Handzel also showed up defensively with 15 digs for the second most on the squad.
Drake will be back in Des Moines for its next pair of games as it hosts Indiana State on Friday, Oct. 24 and Illinois State on Saturday, Oct. 25.
