DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake volleyball team secured a perfect weekend as it survived a five-set fight against the Evansville Purple Aces on Saturday evening inside the Knapp Center.
The first set of the match saw the Bulldogs get out to a slow start but still hold an 8-6 advantage early on after
Caroline Smith got on the board with a kill. Immediately after that point, however, the Purple Aces took control of the frame. Evansville first rattled off a 4-0 run to jump ahead of Drake, 10-8, and then used another 3-0 spurt later to take a 20-14. After Drake produced two points to set the score at 20-16, the Purple Aces closed out the frame on another run, this time 5-0, to put them ahead in the match.
In the second set Drake and Evansville traded points drawing even twice at 5-5 following a kill by
Shay McMillen and then once again at 10-10 after a defensive block by the Purple Aces. From that moment on though, Drake dominated. The Bulldogs used a 6-1 run, getting three kills from McMillen in that span, to separate away from the Purple Aces, 16-11, and immediately followed with a 4-0 burst to increase their lead to 20-12. Not long after Drake went for three-straight scores to win the frame, 25-14 and even the match at one set apiece.
Now with the momentum on their side, the Bulldogs raced out to a 10-5 advantage in set three after a 5-0 scoring run, which forced the Purple Aces to call a timeout. When action resumed Evansville made a small dent in its deficit, but Drake regained its five-point lead by the time of the media timeout getting back-to-back blocks first from
Aniyah Davis and
Katie Quick then again from Davis and
Kamryn Behrns. As the set progressed into the later stages, the Purple Aces pulled themselves within a point of the Bulldogs, 20-19, as they delivered a counter punch with a 4-0 run. Drake, however, matched Evansville's counter punch with a response of its own and found its groove over the final four points as Davis slammed home the closing kill, 25-20.
The Dogs found themselves in a deficit to begin the fourth set at 8-3, but quickly dug themselves out of it and rallied off seven consecutive scores to go ahead 10-8. It was McMillen highlighting the scoring for Drake during that run securing three kills and providing a combo block with
Bliss Beck. The lead for the Bulldogs was short lived though and Evansville was right back in front with a 6-0 run that went into the media break. Drake fought its way back to trailing by just one point near the end with McMillen stepping up and scoring two more kills at the 24-23 mark, but after a quick talking over during an Evansville timeout the Purple Aces won the next point and forced a fifth set.
After some early point trading to start set five, Drake gained a firm grasp of the lead over Evansville due to a 9-1 run. Once again, the Bulldogs played through McMillen and the junior came through providing another block and three more kills to set the score at 11-4. The Purple Aces wouldn't quite go away, however, and chopped Drake's lead down to 14-9, which led Drake head coach
Darrin McBroom to use a timeout to slow down the momentum that Evansville was gaining. The break in action proved to be a smart choice as the match ended on the next point due to a service error on Evansville.
Three Bulldogs reached the double-digit kill mark in the match with the leader of the bunch being McMillen at 22. Smith and Beck were next in line recording 13 and 11 kills, respectively. Quick was all over the court setting up her teammates for scoring chances, meanwhile, and ended her night with 54 assists, one shy of her career high. On the defensive side,
Jasmine Dulan was steady with 24 digs and Behrns also chipped in with 14 to go along with Davis pacing the squad with six blocks.
Drake returns to the road for its next two matches as it travels to Belmont and Murray State. The Bulldogs first challenge the Bruins on Friday, Oct. 30 at 6 p.m. and then they take on the Racers in a Halloween evening duel with first serve at 5 p.m.
