DES MOINES, Iowa. – The Drake volleyball team took to the court for the opening round of the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament on Wednesday night and fought back to advance to the semifinal round with a five-set win over the No. 6 seed Belmont Bruins.
In the early stages of the first set Drake grabbed hold of the lead behind its defense at the net.
Aniyah Davis and
Macy Daufeldt recorded the first block of the night for the Bulldogs and Davis immediately followed with a solo block of her own making the score 6-2 in favor of Drake. The Bulldogs continued to build off their fast start and doubled up the Bruins on the scoreboard, 12-6, using a 4-0 run capped by a service ace from Daufeldt. Later in the frame, a 5-0 run from Drake featuring a service ace by
Emaline Handzel pushed the lead out to 21-12 and shortly after Daufeldt closed the set with a kill at 25-13.
The Bruins bounced back in the second set and took hold of the lead following a 6-0 scoring spurt to go up 11-6. However, Drake matched with a 6-0 run just past the halfway point to pull the frame back even at 16-16 courtesy of multiple attack errors on the part of the Bruins. Down the stretch, Belmont found its composure and eventually pulled away from the Bulldogs, 25-20, drawing the match even.
The third set started off with the two sides trading points, but then Belmont jumped in front with a small 3-0 run at the 9-6 mark. Drake remained right on the tail of the Bruins though and capitalized on more errors from Belmont to pull ahead just before the media timeout, 15-14. Out of the break, however, Belmont seized the momentum going on a 4-0 scoring spurt, with back-to-back aces, to retake its lead. The Bruins reached set point with the score at 24-20, but the Bulldogs rallied scoring four consecutive points to knot the frame even at 24-24. During that span
Bliss Beck recorded a pair of kills and
Addison Beagle sent in an ace. Belmont once again shut the door on the complete comeback by the Bulldogs and took the last two points to win the set, 26-24.
An early run from the Bulldogs, with two more kills by Daufeldt, set the tone for the fourth set as Drake went up 10-6. With Belmont trailing not far behind at the 14-12 mark, the Bulldogs broke the frame open with a 5-0 scoring streak off some good swings by freshman
Caroline Smith and Daufeldt. Drake was in control of the frame from that point forward and forced a fifth set going to
Kacia Brown for the final score, 25-19.
In the winner-take-all fifth set, Drake got just the start it wanted winning the first four points with Beagle securing another service ace to her stat line. Despite the Bruins responding with consecutive aces of their own, the Bulldogs held firm and used a 4-0 run to separate away at 13-7. Moments later, the Bulldogs completed their comeback on the Knapp Center floor getting the final two points off kills from Smith and Brown.
A trio of Bulldogs reached double-digit kills on the night in Daufeldt, Smith, and Brown. Daufeldt led the group with a game-high 16 while Smith went for 13 and Brown tallied 10, respectively. On the defensive side, Daufeldt and Brown each recorded 19 digs, but Beagle had the most for the Bulldogs picking up a career-high 21 digs. The senior setter also led the Dogs with 25 assists.
Drake now goes up against the No. 2 seed, Valparaiso, in the semifinals. That match will take place on Saturday, Nov. 22 from Valparaiso, Ind. With first serve set for 6 p.m. CT.
