DES MOINES, Iowa – The Drake volleyball team picked up its first Missouri Valley Conference victory of the season on Friday night as it defeated the Murray State Racers in straight sets from the Knapp Center.
The Bulldogs and Racers battled it out point-for-point to start the first set of the match and came together at a 7-7 draw following a Drake service error. However, it was all Bulldogs from that point forward. Immediately after the service error the Bulldogs responded with an impressive 12-0 run, the largest scoring run of the season for Drake, to jump ahead 19-7. Doing most of the damage over that run for Drake was
Aniyah Davis and
Lisa Melenciano. The duo combined to score five kills and two blocks to vault the Bulldogs well ahead of the Racers. It was smooth sailing the rest of the way for Drake as Davis came up big defensively again to end the set, 25-13, off a solo block.
The Racers responded with a 5-2 lead when the action for the second set picked up, but Drake countered with a 4-0 run to grab the lead taking advantage of some attack errors and block by
Matthea Dalton and
Kamryn Behrns. Moments later, it was a 5-0 scoring stretch by the Bulldogs that put some separation between them and the Racers with the score moving to 13-9 after a Dalton kill. Murray State tried to make a late push to cut into the Bulldog lead, but Dalton and Melenciano were having none of it and put an end to the set at 25-18 with back-to-back kills.
Looking to make quick work in the third set, Drake bolted out to an 8-2 advantage in the early stages as
Caroline Smith started to find an offensive rhythm. The Bulldogs maintained their lead at 19-14 as the set progressed but used a timeout to make sure everything was in order to secure the sweep. After the break, the Bulldogs went to the freshman Behrns for a couple of kills, and it wasn't much later that Dalton provided the final blow for the 25-19 set win and match victory.
"Offensively, we were very good, very efficient overall and I thought our kids did tonight what they needed to do," Drake head coach
Darrin McBroom said. "We passed well. We were in system a lot. The offense looked very strong and I thought defensively we played well. We just played a really good game and it was good to get a few new faces on the court. Murray State is doing well and they have new coach this year and a lot going on, but they have some really strong hitters and at time really challenged us. The test they gave us was good for our group tonight especially coming out on the top side of that."
Melenciano was the leader for the Bulldogs in the kills category with 13 in the match and was the only Drake player to record double digit kills. Next in line were Dalton and Davis with the pair each collecting eight kills. Davis also led the Bulldogs with a team-high four blocks. Setter
Katie Quick went for a double-double posting 21 assists and a team-high 13 digs. Libero
Jasmine Dulan added 11 digs for the Drake defensive efforts, meanwhile.
The Bulldogs will take to the road for their next pair of matches against Illinois State and Bradley. Drake will first face the Redbirds on Friday, Oct. 2 at 6 p.m. and then follow against the Braves on Saturday, Oct. 3 at 3 p.m.
