INDIANAPOLIS – The IUPUI Jaguars beat UIC in five sets to close out the regular season. The Jags earned a tie for second place in the Horizon League with the win.
After celebrating the careers of four seniors -
Kori Waelbroeck,
Gabby Fisher,
Jessica Helms and
Ashley Hacker - IUPUI (16-13, 12-4 Horizon) fought to a five-set win over the Flames to end the home career on a high note.
"Getting the win was very special," said Waelbroeck. "You never want your last game in your gym to be a loss. It has been a really special four years and I am happy to end on a high note."
The seniors for the Jags were counted on for the victory as Waelbroeck led the team, posting a double-double with 17 kills and 10 digs. Fisher finished second on the team with 14 kills. Helms led the back row with 15 digs on a night where five Jags finished in double-figure digs. During the match Helms also reached the 1,000-career dig mark.
After jumping out to a 2-0 match lead, IUPUI lost the next two sets to find themselves in their second-straight match. It was also the second match that IUPUI and UIC (17-12, 8-8 Horizon) had go five sets. In the fifth set, the teams traded points but UIC looked to take the advantage at 10-8 after a service error from
Abby Boatman. The Jags battled right back with a kill by
Elizabeth Scott and ace from
Maggie Gibson.
Later in the set, down one, IUPUI got a kill from Waelbroeck and an error by UIC to take the lead. The defense then stepped up as
Abby Boatman and
Maddie Dean combined for back-to-back blocks to end the match. The blocks by Boatman and Dean were just two of 16 blocks that the Jags had, matching their season-high.
Dean was third on the team with 11 kills, her fourth-straight match with double-figure kills. Boatman added four kills for the Jags, while hitting .455 and
Haley Hoffman posted four.
Gibson guided the offense with 41 assists and finished with 12 digs for a double-double.
On the defensive side, Hoffman led the team with nine blocks and Gibson was three blocks away from a triple double, finishing with seven. Boatman and Dean each finished with five blocks. On the back line, Scott had 14 digs, and Rhiannon Scheunemann had 11.
The offense was sluggish for the Jags, only hitting .149, the lowest hitting percentage in a win this year, but improved their five-set record to 8-3 on the season because of their defense. The Jags held UIC to .125 hitting and forced 37 errors. The Flames had two sets with a hitting percentage less than 0.050. The defense held the top three hitters for UIC to under a .150 hitting clip.
The first set began with IUPUI jumping out to an early 4-1 lead after a kill by Dean. UIC would pull back in to the set, getting within one multiple times but Fisher had a streak of three-straight kills that pushed the Jags lead to 14-9. As the Flames tried to come back in the set, Waelbroeck had back-to-back kills to give IUPUI a 17-12 lead. The defense, which held UIC to a .000 hitting percentage in the first frame, had one of its two blocks in the set from Boatman and Gibson to maintain a four-point lead. A combination of a kill from Boatman and an error by the Flames gave the Jags the first set by a score of 25-21.
Midway through the second set, with the score 10-8 in favor of UIC, The Jags defense stepped up with three straight blocks. The first, a combination from Boatman and Dean, followed by Waelbroeck and Hoffman teaming up for a block. Maddie dean finished off the run of blocks with a solo block and Boatman added an ace to make it 12-10 Jags. Waelbroeck then added two more kills and
Elizabeth Scott had an ace to give the Jags the 15-13 lead at the media timeout.
The Jags maintained the lead until an ace by the Flames tied the set at 18. An error by UIC followed the ace and Boatman added another service ace to increase the lead to 20-18, forcing a UIC timeout. The teams traded service errors and an attack error by UIC plus a kill from Fisher gave the Jags a 23-21 lead. A block from Gibson and Hoffman gave the Jags set point but the Flames fought off two set points to tie the score at 24. A kill from Gibson gave the Jags a third set point and they wouldn't let this one get away as Waelbroeck delivered a solo block to end the set and put the Jags up 2-0 heading in to the intermission.
Set three started with the Jags and Flames trading runs as IUPUI would take leads only for UIC to pull back in to the set. The Jags kept the lead, never allowing UIC to tie up the set until an attack error by Dean made the score 14-14. The Flames took a 15-14 lead on a block heading in to the media timeout. Dean made up for the error with a block out of the timeout to tie the set at 15. IUPUI started to take control after two Flames errors, another kill by Dean and a big block by the duo of Gibson and Hoffman.
UIC took the lead late in the set after a timeout, scoring five of the next six points to take a 22-20 lead. The Flames scored two more to give them set point at 24-20 and despite IUPUI defending one set point, UIC took the third set 25-21. Errors hurt the Jags in the third set, finishing with a -.290 hitting percentage with eight errors and only seven kills.
The fourth set began with UIC coming out on fire. After the Jags pulled within one at 4-3 on a kill by Waelbroeck, the Flames forced an IUPUI timeout by scoring five of the next six points to take a 9-4 lead. The Jags were held at bay by the Flames until a late run in the set. Down 23-19, a kill by Waelbroeck, error by UIC and another kill by Waelbroeck pulled the Jags within one but UIC scored the next two points to force a fifth and deciding set.
The Jags will enter the Horizon League Championship as the No. 3 seed and will play the No. 6 six Northern Kentucky in the first round on Friday, November 17 at 3 p.m.
