DEKALB, Ill. – The IUPUI volleyball team concluded its 2011 season-opening tournament Saturday with another pair of matches against strong competition in No. 18 Iowa State and Cincinnati, but the Jags were unable to get into the win column falling to both squads, 3-0.

“We played well at certain points today but both Iowa State and Cincinnati proved to be a little too powerful for us and I thought we let up a little bit at the end,” head coach Steve Payne said. “Hopefully we can learn from playing against the high-caliber teams that we played this weekend and fix our mistakes on Tuesday against Ball State.”

The Jags had a tough time in the opening set of its first match against Iowa State falling behind 7-1, forcing Payne to call a timeout. Out of the timeout, a service ace brought the Jaguars within five points, 7-2, but that would be as close as IUPUI would get as Iowa State took set one, 25-13.

A Moriah Fair kill during the first point of the second set got IUPUI off to a good start, but the trend quickly reversed as the Cyclones took 10 of the next 12 points to take a 10-3 advantage. Kills by Bethany Fogler and Fair coupled with an ISU attack error closed the IUPUI deficit to five points, 12-7, but a series of miscues hindered IUPUI and allowed Iowa State to secure another 25-13 triumph.

While the third set got off to a similar start as the first two sets, IUPUI was able to battle back to shrink an early deficit. Trailing 9-4, three kills by Fair, a kill by Fogler, and three ISU miscues aided a Jaguars rally that saw their deficit dwindle to 13-11. However, with the Jags still trailing by two points, a seven-point Iowa State rally ensued pushing the Cyclones lead to 21-12, proving to be the difference. Regardless, the Jags continued to fight as a trio of kills by Fair and a pair of kills by Meredith Farkas helped the Jaguars close within four points, 24-20, but a Hannah Willms kill closed out the match, 25-20.

Fair led all players with 12 kills and hit .333, while Shari Bernhardt led the team with 11 digs. Iowa State finished the match hitting .318, while IUPUI hit .072 collectively.

After facing back-to-back ranked opponents, IUPUI shifted its focus to Cincinnati. With both teams looking for its first win of the season, the Bearcats took early control opening up an 11-point lead, 18-7, midway through the first set. The Jaguars were able to hold their own the rest of the set thanks in part to a block and a kill by Fogler and UC errors, but Cincinnati took the early lead with a 25-15 opening-set win.

The second-set had a different start resulting in five ties after the first 20 points, with the last tie at 10-10. Another long surge came back to hurt IUPUI as Cincinnati took control seizing 13 of the next 15 points to open a 23-12 cushion and eventually completed a 25-13 second-set victory.

Out of the break, three kills by Farkas, and two by Fair and Kalyse Reimbold helped the Jaguars stay within striking distance of the Bearcats. However, trailing by three points, 14-11, a quick three-point UC spurt quickly escalated the lead to six points, which would be as close as the Jaguars reached the rest of the way. Cincinnati ended the third set on a four-point run cementing a 25-14 UC win.

Fair and Reimbold each tallied a team-best six kills, while Fogler hit a team-high .357 and collected three blocks.