INDIANAPOLIS – The IUPUI volleyball team hosts the sixth annual IUPUI Hampton Inn Invitational Sept. 3-4 when it welcomes Eastern Michigan, Marshall, and Stetson to The Jungle for the two-day, round robin tournament. 

“Eastern Michigan is coming back with a lot of starters and they had a good season in the MAC last year. Marshall is a good team in Conference USA and they are always a strong contender in that conference, and Stetson is coming all the way from Florida and they are coming here for the first time,” head coach Steve Payne said. “It’s always great to get new teams into the tournament and we’re looking forward to an exciting weekend of competitive volleyball.”

All of the information for the 2011 IUPUI Hampton Inn Invitational is available at the Tournament Central page.

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.

“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 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.”

After being plagued by too many miscues in the first two sets, IUPUI looked revitalized and jumped out to a much better start in set three. After taking an early lead, Ball State battled back and catapulted in front courtesy of some Jaguars mistakes, but the Jaguars stormed back 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 the Jags remained resilient and tied the score at 24. Another tie ensued at 25, but two more Ball State kills ended the match with The Cardinals winning the third set, 27-25.

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

IUPUI LEADERS

 

Stetson comes to Indianapolis playing its first matches of the season after having its season-opening tournament at William and Mary cancelled due to Hurricane Irene.

Marshall is coming off a tough opening weekend at Morehead State where it played the Eagles and #24 Michigan. The Thundering Herd lost both matches in straight sets, but they were led offensively by Laura Der, who averaged 3.0 kps in the pair of matches.

Eastern Michigan is off to the best start of the group after beginning 3-1. The Eagles dropped their season opener to Notre Dame, before rallying for a five-set win over Butler and three-set wins over Idaho and Oakland.

Rachel Iaquaniello has been on a tear in the first four matches averaging 4.47 kps, while Haley Stein has been anchoring the back row averaging 6.20 dps.