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INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI volleyball team won for the second straight time to open Horizon League play with a 3-1 (25-21, 25-20, 25-27, 25-11) victory over Northern Kentucky inside the Jungle on Sunday (Sept. 24). 
 
The Jaguars (6-9, 2-0 Horizon) used key scoring streaks to close out the first and second sets, while dominating the fourth and decisive set.
 
With the score 21-20 in favor of the Norse, IUPUI closed out the first set with a 5-0 run, and used a 4-0 spree at the end of the second set to take a 2-0 set lead in the match.
 
"Those are at the end of the sets, and that's what we've really been working on," IUPUI head coach Steve Payne said. "After the last match we wanted to try and pick up that pace in the last five or six points of the set to make sure we can pull that off."
 
Neither team was able to gain momentum in the first set, with Northern Kentucky (5-6, 1-1 Horizon) taking the biggest lead at 17-14. IUPUI bounced back with a 4-0 run to go ahead 18-17 with kills by Abby Boatman and McKayla Wright.
 
The Norse took brief leads down the stretch at 20-19, and 21-20, before IUPUI shut the door with their explosive run to end the set that included a pair of Gabby Fisher kills.
 
Both teams battled back and forth in the second set, with IUPUI taking an early five-point lead at 13-8, before Northern Kentucky bounced back to tie it at 18 with a 10-5 run. IUPUI returned the favor with a 7-2 run to close out the set.
 
IUPUI looked to be on their way to a 3-0 sweep in the third set, but was never able to pull away, and eventually allowed Northern Kentucky to come all the way back and force a fourth set.
 
"The third set was a different story," Payne said. "Where we kind of collapsed, and just kind of hoped that they were going to make the mistakes for us."
 
After taking a 1-0 lead, the Norse trailed the entire set until tying the score at 24. Northern Kentucky then capitalized on a pair of IUPUI errors to complete the comeback.
 
Northern Kentucky (5-6, 1-1) managed to hit just .093 and .059 in the first and second sets respectively, but landed .250 percent of their shots in the third set, and had only four errors. Meanwhile, the Jags' hit .205 and had nine errors in the losing set.
 
The Jags' responded well to the third set collapse, by completely dominating the Norse in the fourth set.
 
IUPUI hit an incredible .462 and had no errors. Payne was finally starting to see a sense of urgency from his team.
 
"Set four we made sure there was a sense of urgency finally," he said. "You have to be that way points 0-25 in order to win, and we kind of showed that and showed that's how we can play."
 
Junior setter Maggie Gibson had 48 assists in the Jags' win and attributed the team's offensive success to in-game adjustments.
 
"We saw a lot of bunch blocking," she said. "So we were trying to work on setting the balls out to the pins, because it's harder for those blockers to close on pins so we really worked to set up Gabby, and Kori, and Lizzy a lot today."
 
Fisher, who was unsure if she'd play, led the Jags' with 16 kills in the win, and was setup outside by Gibson all afternoon long.
 
"Maggie did a great job with her sets," the senior said. "Pushing them out there so I could attack."
 
After a sluggish non-conference slate, the Jags' own a perfect league record, but Payne knows no win in the Horizon will come easy.
 
"Any 2-0 is in the right direction, but it's not going to get any easier," he said. "I think anybody can beat anyone in this conference. It's a tough conference so you have to take care of business at home, and that's what we did, and we will go on the road next week and see if we can pull some (wins) out there."
 
IUPUI will travel to Cleveland State Friday evening with first serve at 6 p.m.