IUPUI vs. SDSU – Live Stats | Live Video
IUPUI vs. NDSU – Live Stats | Live Video

INDIANAPOLIS – The Jaguars, who have won five of their last six matches, begin the first weekend of Summit League conference play on the road with match-ups at South Dakota State and preseason Summit League favorite North Dakota State on Friday, Sept. 16 and Saturday, Sept. 17, respectively.

“We have been getting better defensively, but now we get into conference play and our entire league is good defensively,” head coach Steve Payne said. “Offensively, we’re starting to find out what is working and Alexis [Meeks] is starting to really take charge on the court, making good play calls, and knowing who to go to and when we need to go them.  We are getting ready to play really good defensive teams in North Dakota State and South Dakota State and so I think it’s going to be a pretty good battle this weekend.”

IUPUI won its fourth tournament title in program history last weekend defeating Kent State, William and Mary, and Robert Morris to capture the 2011 Kent State Mizuno Open Championship. The win marked IUPUI’s first tournament title since winning the Hotels at Grand Prairie Invitational hosted by Bradley University in 2009.

 

“It’s always great to win a tournament and I was proud of how we continued to block and dig well,” said Payne. “We really had some people step up this weekend and hopefully we can build upon our recent success.”

 

The Jags opened the tournament with an impressive three-set sweep over tournament host Kent State, before finding themselves in a tight match with William and Mary.

 

Against the Tribe, the Jaguars battled back to force a fifth and final set, where Moriah Fair and Bethany Fogler came up clutch for the Jags. Fair collected three kills and Fogler picked up a key solo block helping IUPUI open a five-point lead, 10-5. Down the stretch, a Kortni Wright kill followed by two Tribe attack errors secured the 15-8 fifth-set win.

 

In the tournament finale, IUPUI defeated Robert Morris in three sets securing its third straight win.

 

On the weekend, Fair and Kalyse Reimbold led the team in kills averaging 3.27 kps, while Shari Bernhardt continued her excellent defensive play averaging 5.27 dps over the three matches. Additionally, Fogler and Kelsey Hoefer sustained their strong blocking averaging 1.55 bps and 1.00 bps, respectively, for the tournament.

IUPUI LEADERS

 

IUPUI opens the weekend at South Dakota State, who enters the first week of conference play with an 8-4 record following a pair of losses vs. Kansas State and at Missouri State last weekend.

The Jackrabbits are led offensively by Kelli Fiegen, who is averaging 3.50 kps while hitting at a .379 clip. As a squad, SDSU is hitting .215. Defensively, the Jackrabbits are one of the top teams in the conference in terms of digging the ball averaging 16.48 dps led by Shay Birath’s 4.66 dps.

The preseason Summit League favorite North Dakota State comes into conference play with a 6-5 overall record following a pair of losses a week ago to #17 Iowa State.

Brynn Joki leads one of the top balanced offensive attacks in the conference with 3.47 kps, while three other Bison players are also averaging over 2.00 kps.

NDSU’s offensive catalyst is setter Jennifer Lopez as she averages an impressive 10.62 aps while leading the squad to a .247 team hitting percentage.

IUPUI is 3-5 all-time against South Dakota and 0-10 versus North Dakota State.