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EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Behind 10 kills from Meredith Farkas and 18 digs from Beth Howard, the IUPUI volleyball team rebounded from a mid-week loss with an impressive 3-0 win over DePaul Friday afternoon in the first match of the Evansville Tournament.

IUPUI got off to a tremendous start offensively with Kori Waelbroeck and Gabby Fisher combining to hit 1.000 in the opening set, and once the DePaul block shifted their attention to those two, Kaitlyn Hickey, Kelly Wachtel and Farkas picked up the slack helping the Jags improve to 3-6 on the season.

"We had a couple days to work on the things we saw on tape that we needed to fix and we stepped on the court, had a good game plan and executed well," head coach Steve Payne said.
Farkas led the way with 10 kills, but Hickey added nine and Wachtel and Waelbroeck put down seven kills apiece to give the Jaguars a well-balanced offensive attack. Ashley Hacker and Alexis Mapes dished out 18 and 17 assists, respectively, and led the offense to a combined .229 hitting percentage in the victory.

"The difference in the match was that we played a complete match tonight. We moved the ball around and set a good block.  We were able to filter the ball to our good back row players and then we ran a good transition offense. It was a great team effort."

DePaul and IUPUI went back and forth in the opening set but with the score tied at 17-17, the Jaguars used a kill from Logan Walling, a block from Fisher, a kill from Hickey and a Blue Demons attack error during a five-point span to take a 21-18 advantage. Following a DePaul side out, kills from Wachtel and Hickey and a block from Fisher and Wachtel put the Jags on the doorstep of an opening set victory at 24-19. The Blue Demons spoiled two set points, but an attack error followed giving IUPUI a 25-21 victory.

The Blue Demons charged back early in set two and looked to be in control after jumping out to a 12-6 lead. That lead didn't last long thanks to IUPUI taking nine of the next 10 points to catapult in front, 15-13. The advantage grew to five at 19-14, but DePaul made a late push eventually knotting the score at 22-22 forcing an IUPUI timeout. Out of the timeout, Farkas snapped the run with a kill and then two Blue Demons miscues gave the Jags the come-from-behind 25-22 set-two win.

Looking to close the match out in three sets, the Jags grabbed control early and were never truly threatened. IUPUI seized a 10-4 advantage out of the gates, but DePaul couldn't cut its deficit to fewer than three the rest of the way. The IUPUI cushion was cut to three eight times, with the last being at 20-17, but kills from Waelbroeck, Wachtel and Hickey coupled with two Blue Demons attack errors capped off a five-point surge that closed out a 25-17 third-set win.

The Jags close out the Evansville Tournament on Saturday, Sept. 13, when they take on Central Michigan and Evansville. The Jaguars and Chippewas square off at 11 a.m. ET before IUPUI meets the Purple Aces at 7:30 p.m. ET.