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INDIANAPOLIS - With the match tied at one set apiece and the IUPUI volleyball team trailing by four early in set three, the Jaguars rallied together to win sets three and four to hand South Dakota its first Summit League loss of the season Friday evening at The Jungle.

The 3-1 (25-23, 16-25, 27-25, 25-17) Jags victory evened their overall record at 12-12 and improved their Summit League record to 6-2, while USD fell to 16-7 overall and 7-1 in the conference. The win against the Coyotes also moved IUPUI within one game of South Dakota for the top spot in the league standings.

"We stuck to our game plan in set one and kind of controlled everything, and in set two they played real aggressive on the offensive end and we just couldn't handle that," head coach Steve Payne said. "Set three was just point-for-point - just a couple long rallies that we won - and set four we had some really good defense at the end of the set and that made the difference."

Kaitlyn Hickey led IUPUI with 18 kills and 10 of those kills came in the final two sets helping IUPUI claim its 14th consecutive home conference victory. Moriah Fair and Kelly Wachtel joined Hickey in double figures in kills with 16 and 11, respectively.

"We knew that we would have to come out and go for every single ball, work extra hard, and this week we put in our practice to make sure we knew what they were going to do," Hickey said. "We just really came together and knew that we had to do it together - we couldn't do it on our own. We had to do our side and not really worry about what they were doing, but just step up and do what we had to do."

The Jaguars got off to a sloppy start in the first set, falling behind by as much as four. Two Kelsey Biltoft kills and a Riley Haug ace gave the Coyotes a 13-9 lead and forced Payne to call a timeout. Fair struggled in the set with four errors, but she got a kill on the first point out of the timeout, triggering a 12-3 run by the Jaguars. Up 24-21 and with three set points, the Coyotes spoiled the first two before Logan Walling smashed the final kill for the 25th point. The Jaguars held Kendall Kritenbrink, the Summit League leader in kills per set, to only four kills in the opening frame and they had three team blocks compared to USD's zero.

The Coyotes recovered in the second set, however, never trailing and winning 25-16 as the Jaguars managed only a .027 hitting percentage. IUPUI put a three-point run together early in the set to cut its deficit to 7-5, but South Dakota began to pull away. Down 22-13, IUPUI once again started to gain momentum off three errors from the Coyotes, but it lost the final three points and the set. Kritenbrink returned to form with six kills in the set including two on the final two points.

It looked like the Coyotes would keep things going up 6-2 in the third set, but the Jaguars fought back with a Meredith Farkas ace and errors from Sydney Dimke and Kritenbrink to tie the score at 10-10. There were nine more ties and six lead changes from that point. The Jags were down multiple times late - 19-17, 23-21 and 24-23 - but each time they fought back. On their second set point, up 26-25, Hickey got her seventh kill of the set to secure a 27-25 victory. With her solo block on the 14th point, Hickey became IUPUI's single-season record holder for solo blocks with 25. Collectively, the Jags had four blocks compared to only one in the previous set and forced four errors from Kritenbrink in the pivotal third set.

On the back of three five-point runs, the Jaguars dominated the final set en route to a 25-17 victory. Trailing 3-2, Fair recorded three kills in the next four points as the Jaguars pulled out to a 7-3 lead. They wouldn't trail again. Up 13-12, the Jaguars went on another run with two kills from Hickey and another kill from Fair. Kritenbrink won a point for South Dakota to end the slide, but the Jaguars continued their strong play and pushed their lead to 24-15. Two points later, Alexis Meeks assisted Kortni Wright on a kill to end the match. It was Meeks's 45th assist and Wright's third kill of the match.

Defensively, Beth Howard posted a match-best tying 17 digs, while Hickey and Wright each tallied four total blocks apiece.

The Jaguars close out their weekend homestand on Saturday, Oct. 26, when they welcome Summit League newcomer Denver to The Jungle for the first time. The match is set to begin at 5 p.m.