DENVER – Volleyball earned a first round bye in the Summit League Volleyball Championship this weekend by finishing second in the league with a 12-4 record. The Jags will not play until Saturday, Nov. 21 at 9:30 p.m., when they face off against the winner of Omaha and Oral Roberts with that match being streamed for free on denverpioneers.com.
 
Omaha – (17-12, 12-4 Summit)
 
Omaha is the third seed in the conference finishing league play with a 12-4 record but losing the tiebreaker to IUPUI.
 
The first matchup of the year with the Mavericks was a domination by the Jags, who won the match 3-0. IUPUI held Omaha to a .100 hitting percentage including just .030 in the second set. IUPUI finished hitting .284 including over .324 in the second and third set.
 
Two Jags finished in double-figure kills with sophomore Kori Waelbroeck leading the way with 14. Senior Kelly Wachtel finished with 11 kills on just 15 attempts for a hitting percentage of .733. Wachtel's hitting percentage in the match was good for the second highest percentage of any player in school history with 15-19 attempts.
 
After losing to IUPUI, Omaha went on an eight match winning streak to get back into position for a first round bye in the tournament. The last match of the season between Omaha and the Jags would decide who would get the three seed and who would get the bye.  
 
The matchup in the Jungle was much closer than the first match this season. Omaha, which is the top digging team in the Summit League showed why they are so good on defense, out-digging the Jags 101-89.
 
In what became a battle of top offense versus top defense, IUPUI's offense prevailed. After only hitting .192 in the first set but still managing a win, in part because of holding the Mavericks to just .146, the Jags won set two hitting .258. Looking for the sweep, the Jags stumbled on offense only hitting .132 and Omaha forced a fourth set. In set number four the Jags hit .476 with 21 kills and only one error to win the match 3-1 and earn the second seed.
 
The Jags finished that match with four players in double figure kills and five with double digit digs.
 
Oral Roberts – (14-5, 8-8 Summit)
 
The Oral Roberts Golden Eagles finished Summit League play losing their last three matches and losing the tiebreaker with South Dakota to fall in to the last seed in the tournament.
 
This season ORU and IUPUI split the season series with both teams winning on their home court.
 
When the Jags traveled to Tulsa, Okla., for the first matchup with the Golden Eagles, IUPUI fell 3-1 in a very evenly matched affair. IUPUI outhit ORU .246 to .239 but the Golden Eagles finished with four more digs than the Jags.
 
After winning the first set, costly errors hurt the Jags in the next three sets, which helped Oral Roberts earn the 3-1 victory.
 
IUPUI bounced back later in the season when they hosted the Golden Eagles. After falling in the first set 25-16, IUPUI won set two 25-23. ORU won set three 26-24 but the Jags forced a fifth set with a 25-22 set four win. In the fifth set the Jags only committee on error while Oral Roberts committed six as IUPUI won the match with a 15-10 fifth set win.
 
Defense was key for the Jags in the second match with Oral Roberts. Even though the Jags allowed 35 kills by Laura Milos, IUPUI set a school record with 21 blocks in the match. Junior Logan Walling set a school record with 12 total blocks and tied a record with 10 block assists.
 
The Jags will find out who they play when Omaha and Oral Roberts clash on Friday, Nov. 20 with the match scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m. The Jags will take on the winner of the match on Saturday Nov. 21, with that match also scheduled to start at 9:30 p.m.