INDIANAPOLIS – After a slow start, IUPUI rebounded to beat Green Bay, 3-1, in a matchup of the top two teams in the Horizon League.
 
The win (18-25, 25-22, 25-11, 25-19) for IUPUI (9-10, 5-1 Horizon) puts the Jags on top of the Horizon League standings through three weeks of play.
 
"It was a great win," said head coach Steve Payne. "Started out a little slow but the girls picked it up in set two and definitely in set three, with that big win."
 
After only hitting .054 in the first-set loss, the Jags bounced back to hit .277 in the second set, .444 in the third set and .333 in the final frame.
 
Senior Gabby Fisher led the way for the Jags offense with 16 kills. Fellow senior Kori Waelbroeck finished with 13, and Haley Hoffman added 10 kills.
 
"We need to keep that balance offensively so the defense can't just key on one person," said Payne. "It was good to see Haley [Hoffman] come through again and Maggie [Gibson] is mixing the ball up quite a bit. We are playing all around good ball right now."
 
Defensively, IUPUI held Green Bay to a .200 hitting percentage as the Jags had five players with double-digit digs. Senior Jessica Helms led the squad with 20, Elizabeth Scott added 14 to go along with nine kills, Waelbroeck had 13 for a double-double and Maggie Gibson and Rhiannon Schuenemann each posted 10. The Jags also had nine blocks as a team.
 
Green Bay (8-9, 4-2 Horizon) had three players finish with double-digit kills. Lydia DeWeese and Jessica Wolf led the Phoenix with 13 kills apiece and Roberta Todd added 12. No other Phoenix finished with more than five kills.


 
The opening set went back-and-forth with the score staying within one point until Green Bay used a 3-0 run to take an 11-8 lead after a block by Kristen Paulus and DeWeese.  The Phoenix would keep the lead, and after two kills from Roberta Todd would lead 15-11 at the media timeout.
 
Green Bay forced an IUPUI timeout at 17-12 and after the timeout, the Jags picked up a point on a block by Gibson and Abby Boatman. The Phoenix would respond with five-straight points to take a 22-13 lead.
 
IUPUI went on a run with a block by Hoffman and Waelbroeck and a kill by Maddie Dean to bring the score to 23-17 but Green Bay would halt the Jags' rally and take the first set 25-18.
 
The Jags came out with a different energy in set two scoring the first four points of the frame with back-to-back kills by Hoffman, an ace from Scott and a kill from Fisher. IUPUI continued to put pressure on Green Bay with kills from Waelbroeck, Gibson and Scott to force Green Bay to call a timeout with the Jags up 9-4.
 
Points would be traded as the set continued with IUPUI forcing a Green Bay timeout after a kill from Fisher gave the Jags a 16-10 lead.  After the timeout the Phoenix used a 5-1 run to pull within two and force a timeout from Coach Payne.
 
Green Bay would battle back to tie the set at 20 after a kill by Wolf but the Jags responded. Kills by Waelbroeck and Gibson gave the Jags a lead they would not relinquish and two-straight kills by Boatman gave IUPUI a 25-22 set win to tie the match.
 
Set three began with the same intensity for the Jags as set two. A block by Waelbroeck and Hoffman, plus kills from Waelbroeck and Fisher and another block by Boatman gave the Jags a 9-2 lead and forced Green Bay to use its second timeout of the set.
 
Kills by Waelbroeck would push the Jags lead to 12-2 and IUPUI kept the momentum in the set with kills by Fisher, Scott and Boatman. The last kill by Boatman made the score 18-9. Back-to-back kills from Fisher gave the Jags a 23-11 lead and Scott finished off the frame to give IUPUI the 25-11 set win.
 
The Jags hit a match-high .444 in the third set finishing with 14 kills and only two errors on 27 attacks.
 
With the chance to close out the match for the Jags, set four saw Green Bay jump out to an 8-5 lead after a kill by Todd. The Jags battled back and tied the set at 10 after Scott delivered a kill and an ace.
 
After Green Bay increased its lead to 17-14 the Jags answered back with a 3-0 run, including kills by Scott and Waelbroeck to tie the set and force a timeout.  The Jags would finally take their first lead of the fourth set on a Fisher kill to lead 19-18 but Green Bay would pick up a kill to tie the set.
 
From there IUPUI would win the next six points, including two kills by Fisher and three blocks from Boatman, to win the final set 25-19 and the match 3-1.
 
"We went point-for-point with them in that fourth set," said Payne. "Those last five points we did great with those three blocks and a couple of points by Gabby [Fisher] and that helped us pull it out."
 
IUPUI finishes its three-game homestand with a match on Wednesday, October 11 at 4 p.m. against Oakland. The match will also be broadcast on ESPN3.