INDIANAPOLIS – In front of a raucous crowd, IUPUI volleyball sent its seniors out on a high-note with a four-set win over Oakland on Saturday (Nov. 10). The win is the fourth-straight for the Jags but the season ends with IUPUI finishing one game out of the sixth spot in the Horizon League championship.
"I think the team really came together," said interim head coach
Lindsey Buteyn. "They had really good connections on the court. Even when they were down they found a way to remind themselves they were all in this together."
"It was awesome, the vibe was amazing and to have the fans there meant a lot," said senior
Abby Boatman. "It is a surreal way to end it and I wouldn't want it any other way."
IUPUI (record) got huge games from seniors Boatman and
Maggie Gibson as the two played their last matches inside the Jungle. Boatman finished with a team-high seven blocks and was second on the team with 15 kills, while Gibson guided the offense to one of its best performances of the year with her 49 assists. For the match, IUPUI hit .226 as a team, the third highest hitting percentage of the season. IUPUI hit over .245 in all three sets the Jags won and hit over .300 in two of the three set wins.
"I really was just hitting the balls that Maggie [Gibson] put up there," said Boatman. "She made it easy and that is honestly all it was."
"
Maggie Gibson does a really good job of putting her hitters in really good situations," said Buteyn. "I gave all of our hitters the green light to swing away and I just want to give the credit to them to staying competitive and swinging away."
Freshman
Hannah Oehlberg led the Jags with 16 kills and
Maddie Dean added 14. The Jags finished with just 19 attack errors to their 56 kills in the match.
On defense, the Jags finished with 12 blocks and 69 digs. Boatman led the team at the net and junior
Haley Hoffman finished with five blocks. Gibson added four while
Kaitlyn Johnson and Dean each stuffed three Golden Grizzly attacks.
"Our middles [
Abby Boatman and
Haley Hoffman] our really intuitive and do a really good job of finding the right spots to take up. They have improved immensely since their freshman years here," said Buteyn.
Heading to the fourth set with a 2-1 match lead the Jags fell behind early but scored four-straight on three Oakland errors and a block by Hoffman and Gibson. The teams traded points until IUPUI scored three-straight with back-to-back kills by Oehlberg and a kill by Boatman.
After Oakland tied the match at 15, The Jags got kills from Dean, Boatman and Hoffman to push the lead to three. Each time Oakland made a run to tie the set IUPUI had an answer with kills by Hoffman and Boatman. The Jags earned match point on an error by Oakland and a service error by the Golden Grizzlies ended the match in IUPUI's favor.
"It was really, really special [for the seniors to get the win], "said Buteyn. "The seniors put so much in to this program and their personalities on and off the court, they are great people and are definitely going to contribute to the world."
IUPUI jumped out to an early lead to begin the match and took a 10-7 lead after a block by the duo of Boatman and Oehlberg. Another block by, this time by Hoffman and Dean pushed IUPUI's lead to 14-10 and the Jags took a 16-11 lead after an error by Oakland.
The Golden Grizzlies used a 4-0 run to pull within one but IUPUI responded with a kill by Hoffman. Back-to-back kills by Oehlberg put the Jags up four. Oakland continued to battle, pulling within one at 24-23 but Dean's kill gave the first set to IUPUI.
After a second set that saw IUPUI hit -.027 and lost 25-13, IUPUI needed to regroup and traded points with Oakland to start set three. An error by Oakland put the Jags up 12-9 but Oakland scored five points to take a two-point lead. The Jags responded with a kill by Dean and kill by Johnson to go back up one. Oakland tied up the set but IUPUI scored seven of the next eight points to go up 23-17. Oakland used a 4-0 run to force an IUPUI timeout but an error and kill by Boatman gave IUPUI the 2-1 match lead.
"It feels really good to have everything come together at the end," said Boatman. "I just really hope that the coming years this team can carry over what we did the last four games."
