Ball State 3, IUPUI 0
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INDIANAPOLIS – Playing in front of its home crowd for the first time this season, the IUPUI volleyball team used the energy from the crowd to make a late run against Ball State, but the Cardinals proved to be too much as they defeated the Jaguars, 3-0, Tuesday evening at The Jungle.

“It’s always good to have some fight left in you in the third after you have lost the first two, but we really would like to see that fight and intensity in sets one and two,” said head coach Steve Payne. “We have to get over that hump and win set one so that we will stay energized throughout the whole match to help us get our first win.”

Miscues plagues the Jaguars in set one as five errors, including four coming from Ball State blocks, helped the Cardinals push out to a 7-1 lead. IUPUI struggled to get into an offensive flow as the Cardinals continued to push their lead and eventually pulled off a 25-12 first-set win. Ball State hit .394 in the opening stanza with seven blocks to their credit, while the Jags hit -.026.

Another slow start in set two spotted BSU an early 8-2 advantage, but consecutive kills by Moriah Fair combined with a Cardinals attack error brought the Jags back within three points, 8-5. IUPUI remained with striking distance at the mid-way point of the set, but Ball State methodically built its lead up to eight points, 21-13. Following three straight BSU errors late in the set, IUPUI was able to cut its deficit to five points, 22-17, but a Jennifer Boyd kill preceded a pair of Kylee Baker kills sending the Cardinals to a 25-18 second-set victory.

Out of the intermission, IUPUI looked revitalized and jumped out to a much better start in set three. Behind kills from Kelsey Hoefer and Bethany Fogler, and block from Fogler and Alexis Meeks, IUPUI built an early three-point lead and later used another Fair kill to take a four-point lead, its largest of the set.

Ball State battled back and catapulted in front courtesy of some Jaguars mistakes, but the Jaguars stormed back and used two kills from Fogler, a kill and an ace by Lindsey Weber, and a kill by Fair to recapture a two-point lead, 18-16. The Cardinals looked to have the set in hand after rebounding to take a 24-22 lead, but kills by Fair and Meeks knotted the score at 24. Another tie ensued at 25, but a Boyd kills followed by a Mindy Marx kill ended the match with Ball State winning the third set, 27-25.

Fair led the Jaguars with 14 kills, while Meeks posted the first double-double of the season with 28 assists and 11 digs. Weber also tied for the team lead with 11 digs.

IUPUI continues its four-match homestand this weekend when it hosts the 2011 IUPUI Hampton Inn Invitational. The Jaguars welcome Eastern Michigan, Marshall, and Stetson to this year’s two-day, six-match round-robin tournament, which begins on Saturday, Sept. 3 when Marshall and Eastern Michigan meet at 10 a.m.

IUPUI’s first match on Saturday will be against Stetson at 12:30 p.m., before rounding out the evening against Marshall at 7 p.m. The tournament will conclude on Sunday, Sept. 4 with IUPUI taking on Eastern Michigan at 3 p.m. in the second match of the day.