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TULSA, Okla. – Despite an otherwise solid effort from a vastly improved offense, the IUPUI volleyball team (12-19, 8-8) couldn't hold off the aggressive play of Oral Roberts (16-14, 8-8), falling in a tightly contested sweep (26-28, 26-28, 22-25) Sunday to close the regular season.  The Jags have already qualified for the Summit League Tournament, set to begin Nov. 18 in Denver, Colorado. 
 
Tremendous doesn't do justice to describe the effort put forth by the Jags top-two hitters, as Gabby Fisher led IUPUI with 18 kills on a .326 attack percentage, also picking up 11 digs in a double-double effort.  Logan Walling had a strong 14-kill effort, her highest of the season, hitting .417 with six total blocks.  Alexis Mapes distributed 39 assists on a day in which the Jag offense hit .287 as a unit, picking up 46 kills to 11 errors. 
 
The biggest plague for the Jags was primarily stopping the Summit League's leading hitter, Laura Milos, as the deadly outside hitter picked up 33 kills after being set 68 times.  The kill total marks the highest individual performance against the Jags this season.  She accounted for more than half of the Golden Eagles 58 kills as a team, as ORU swung .297 for the match.  IUPUI picked up eight total blocks for the match, including three solo, limiting the Golden Eagles to six total.  The Jags had 53 digs to 61 for ORU. 
 
A continuing theme for the Jags in tight matches this season has been maintaining composure at clutch moments.  All year, the Jags found themselves with multiple opportunities to pull out sets against extremely tough opponents, only to fall on untimely errors or missed chances.  Versus Oral Roberts, the Jags rallied late in the first set, with the Golden Eagles having a quadruple set-point, to tie the game at 24-24.  They'd even take the lead after getting two huge solo blocks from Walling, with a chance to go up in the set count early.  Instead, Milos picked up three kills down the stretch, as ORU locked up the first set on a solo block, ending the frame 26-28.
 
The second set featured another late opportunity, as IUPUI committed a pair of costly errors at an inopportune time.  Tied at 20-20, the teams went point-for-point, eventually squaring up the contest at 25-25 on a kill from Fisher.  Milos struck again to give a set-point to ORU, but Fisher fired right back with her own kill to tie it at 26.  That's when the wheels came off, as a service error and an attack error handed a 2-0 set count lead to the Eagles, with the Jags falling 26-28. 
 
Despite trailing for most of the third set, the Jags once again were within striking distance of ORU late.  The continued theme of the match however was the inability to slow down Milos, as she picked up 11 kills in the final frame to drop the Jags, 22-25.
 
Every set for IUPUI showed a better attack percentage than their season average.  The Jags hit .256 in the first, .366 in the second and .238 in the third.  The Jags consistently committed fewer errors on the attack than did Oral Roberts, but had trouble with the first touch off the serve.  The Jags had five reception errors, and committed seven serving errors to just two aces as well. 
 
With the loss, IUPUI will head to Denver carrying the sixth-seed in the Summit League Tournament.  South Dakota will be the top seed, followed by Denver then North Dakota State.  Fort Wayne will be the fourth seed followed by Oral Roberts. 
 
Despite their woes, the Jags have consistently been competitive throughout the year and late into sets, battling even some of the top programs in the nation in tight contests.  After a brutal preseason schedule, the Jags finish the 2016 regular season with an 8-8 Summit League record.  The mark is respectable, but hardly indicative of the pure talent and potential the team possesses.  As they move into the Tournament, the team will be looked at as the underdogs of the weekend.  Regardless, they're completely capable of beating any team they face, and will continue to work through the week in an effort accomplish as much. 
 
Details will be unveiled in the coming days as to the Summit League Tournament schedule, matchups, game times and media coverage that will be available from Denver.
 
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