VERMILLION, S.D. – IUPUI's offense struggles late, only hitting .119 and .189 in the third and fourth sets leading to a 3-1 loss against South Dakota at The Den, Friday night.
 
With the loss the Jags fall to 14-7 overall and 5-2 in Summit League play, while South Dakota picked up its second league victory of the year and moves to 2-5 in league play with an 8-12 overall record.
 
IUPUI was led by Kaitlyn Hickey with 19 kills, hitting .405 and Kelly Wachtel finished with 14, hitting .393 on a night where the Jags only hit .229 as a team and finished with 21 errors.
 
"Our passing wasn't as strong as it had been at other times this season," said head coach Steve Payne. "We had two girls do a good job tonight but you need more than two to win a match."
 
In the first set South Dakota jumped out to an early 5-0 lead but the Jags battled back to within one at 6-5. The teams traded scoring runs again until the set was even at 13. Tight back and forth play continued until 20-20 when the Coyotes won five of the next six points to take the first set 25-21.
 
The Jags were looking to even the match at one set a piece and got off to a strong start in set two taking an early 5-2 lead on an ace by Ashley Hacker. South Dakota would pull within one at 6-5 but kills by Hickey, Gabby Fisher and Wachtel, as well as a USD error increased the lead to 10-5.
 
South Dakota would pull within two a couple of times later in the set but IUPUI increased its lead to six at 21-15 and cruised to tie up the match with a 25-21 second set victory.
 
After the intermission, the Jags and Coyotes traded leads multiple times in the third set and the first three-point lead of the set belonged to IUPUI at 16-13 after an attack error by USD. The Jags took a 20-16 lead after a Logan Walling kill but were not able to maintain the lead as the Coyotes went on a 9-2 run to close the third set, winning it 25-22 and taking a two set to one lead.
 
"I thought we had a really good second set. We came out strong in the third but couldn't hold on to the lead," said Payne. "We had some communication errors and South Dakota did a good job and took advantage of our mistakes."
 
With the Jags needing to win set four to stay alive they found themselves in another early hole down 5-1.  IUPUI was able to pull within three at 8-5 but South Dakota had an answer for every IUPUI run increasing its lead to seven at 17-10 on its way to winning the match with a 25-16 fourth set win and a 3-1 match victory.
 
The road trip continues for IUPUI Saturday, Oct. 17, when it travels to Nebraska to take on Omaha at 5 p.m.