Box Score

VALPARAISO, Ind. – The IUPUI volleyball could not overcome a strong Valparaiso attack Tuesday night, falling 3-0 at the Athletics Recreation Center.  The Jaguars, who lead the country in digs with 18.89 per set, came away with just 45 in the match, enabling the Crusaders to hit .342 in the match.

The Jaguars were led by Kalyse Reimbold, who had 12 kills.  Chelsea Bastin led IUPUI (11-11) with 10 digs, while Valparaiso (14-6) had 49 kills in 114 attempts.

In the opening set, the two teams traded points early on, with Valparaiso building an early three-point lead at 10-7 on a kill by Angie Porche.  The Crusaders built their lead to four at 12-8, forcing an IUPUI timeout, before the Jaguars mounted a brief comeback via a Danielle Goodnight kill and Shari Bernhardt ace. 

However, with the score 15-12 in favor of Valpo, a kill by Allison Sears and an IUPUI handling error pushed the Crusader lead to five, and it grew to six following a block by Sara Bukowski and Sears.  Reimbold came up with a kill to cut the deficit back to five, but the gap was too much to overcome as the Jaguars fell, 18-25.

Instead of trading points in the early going of the second set, the Jaguars raced out to a 7-3 lead on the backs of Reimbold, along with the defense of Dana Gardner and Monica Suding.  Reimbold had three kills during the run, while Gardner and Suding came up with a block to put IUPUI ahead, 6-2.

The Jags’ lead would grow to 17-10, as IUPUI went on a 5-1 run midway through the set.  A kill by Gardner made it 15-10, and she and Suding came up with a block to push the lead to six.  After a Valpo attack error, the Crusaders took a timeout with the score 17-10.

Instead of the teams trading points until the Jaguars evened the match, Valpo came out of the timeout on fire, going on a 9-0 run to stun the Jags and take control of the set. Still, after a timeout, a Gardner kill made it 18-19; back-to-back kills by Porche pushed the Crusader lead to 21-18.

IUPUI had one more run left in them, as Bernhardt and Ashley Johnson tallied kills on consecutive possessions to cut their deficit to a single point.  Another Bernhardt kill brought the Jags to 21-22, but Porche answered with a kill to make it 21-23, and two more Crusader points concluded the rally.

Needing a win in the third set to continue the match, the Jaguars never led in a 13-25 defeat.  After tying the set at 8, a Crusader kill gave Valparaiso a lead they would not relinquish.  Even though the Jaguars came within two at 11-13, Valpo closed the set on a 12-2 run, sweeping the Jags.

IUPUI, who had defeated all of their in-state opponents prior to the match, fell to 5-1 against teams from Indiana.  The Jaguars will be back in action on Friday, October 24, when they host Western Illinois in a key Summit League matchup.  The match will begin at 7 p.m. from The Jungle.