MT. PLEASANT, Mich. - The IUPUI volleyball team came back from a two-set deficit to defeat Indiana State Friday evening (20-25, 25-21, 14-25, 26-24, 15-11) in the opening game of the Chippewa Invitational.
After the Sycamores ended set two on a 22-8 tear to take a 2-1 match lead, the Jaguars were up against the wall for a second consecutive match.
IUPUI (4-5) began it's climb in the fourth set by breaking an 11-11 tie, capitalizing on three Indiana State errors to take a 15-13 lead. The Jags held a steady margin until Indiana State locked the score at 24-24, but prevailed with two-straight points to win the set as Elizabeth Scott ended it with an ace.
In the fifth and decisive set, IUPUI took a commanding 5-1 lead and never looked back.
Haley Hoffman led the surge with four kills in the set. The Jags' hit .320 in the dominating winner-take-all finale.
"It was another hard fought win that us come through with a good fifth set to seal it with 11 kills," IUPUI Head Coach
Steve Payne said. "We are starting to put pieces in place and when we are in sync, we are a very good team."
Indiana State (1-8) hit .297 in the first set, and .395 in the third, but cooled off tremendously in their three losing sets. The Sycamores managed to hit .259 in set four, but only .109 and .080 in sets two and five respectively.
In set one Indiana State broke a pair of early ties and never trailed, while IUPUI broke an 8-8 tie with a 5-1 run take the lead for good in set two. Back-to-back kills from seniors
Gabby Fisher and
Kori Waelbroeck pushed the Jags' ahead 23-20 to help seal the deal.
After seven first set errors, the Jags' only tallied 11 miscues the rest of the way, while taking advantage of 24 Sycamore mishaps.
Waelbroeck led the Jags' with a .271 hitting percentage, 22 kills and 19 digs. Fisher added 19 kills and 11 digs, while hitting .204. Leading IUPUI in hitting percentage was
Maggie Gibson with a .286. The junior also added 58 assists and 19 digs in the win.
"I thought that we took what we worked on in practice this week and incorporated it into this match," Waelbroeck said. "ISU's defense was great and we changed up what we were doing and started using the blockers' hands to get points. Our middles were connecting well with Maggie, which helped us spread out the offense. We still have some work to do with starting off matches strong, but we are hoping to improve that aspect of our game tomorrow against CMU."
Indiana State was led by junior Laura Gross with 23 kills and 22 digs, while sophomore Damadj Johnson added 31 assists and 16 kills.
Both teams return to action at the Chippewa Invitational on Saturday. The Sycamores battle Cleveland State at 2:30 p.m. IUPUI takes on the host Central Michigan at 5 p.m. Live video and stats will be available on IUPUIJags.com at the start of the match.
