INDIANAPOLIS – IUPUI lost a tight battle to Northern Kentucky, falling in four sets to the Norse on Saturday afternoon (Oct. 13).
The Jags (5-17, 2-6 Horizon) were led by
Maggie Gibson who finished with 13 kills, 18 assists and eight digs.
Hannah Oehlberg tied her career-high with 11 kills and added eight digs.
Rebecca Schlechte had 20 assists and seven digs.
Rhiannon Schuenemann led the Jags defense with 17 digs and
Rachel Hickey finished with 12. The Jaguars finished with 11 blocks as a team, led by
Abby Boatman with five, while
Elizabeth Scott and
Haley Hoffman each had four.
The first three sets of the match ended up 25-22, with the first set going in IUPUI's favor. The back –and-forth first set did not feature a three-point lead until IUPUI went up 20-17 after an ace by Boatman. Two kills by Hoffman and a kill by
McKayla Wright helped the Jags to the set win.
IUPUI and Northern Kentucky traded points to start the second set until NKU scored three-straight to take a three-point lead. The Jags responded with four-straight that featured kills by Oehlberg and Boatman and two blocks. After the teams traded 3-0 runs, IUPUI ended up taking a 22-21 lead after another service ace. A timeout by Northern Kentucky sparked the Norse who scored the next four points to end the set.
The Jags jumped out to a 7-3 lead to begin the third frame after a 5-0 run featuring two kills by both Gibson and Oehlberg. NKU responded with six of the next seven points to go up by one point. With the Jags down one, another 5-0 run featuring two Jaguar blocks put IUPUI up 17-14. With the score tied at 20, Northern Kentucky pulled off three-straight points to take control of the set and go up 2-1 in the match.
After dropping two close sets, IUPUI seemed out of gas as a 5-0 NKU run put the Jags down 14-6. IUPUI was never able to respond and another run by Northern Kentucky made the score 21-9 as NKU closed out the match with a 25-14 set win.
IUPUI will hit the road for its next four matches beginning with a meeting with Green Bay on Friday (Oct. 19) at 7 p.m.