MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – A shorthanded IUPUI squad earned a first-set win but fell in four sets to Robert Morris on Monday (March 15).
IUPUI (0-9) had eight available players, three of which finished the match with nine kills.
Rhiannon Schuenemann got her first-career start playing on the outside and tallied a career-high nine kills. Both
Emily Alan and
Allie Pogue joined Schuenemann with nine kills.
Millai Madison tallied eight kills and hit a career-high .533.
Darragh Dixon guided the offense with 38 assists.
On defense,
Alli Cook collected a career-high 17 digs to lead the Jags and
Rachel Funkhouser matched her career-best with 14 digs. Pogue also finished with double-digit digs, adding 10. The Jags finished with eight team blocks with Alan tallying a career-high six.
Early in the first set, IUPUI took advantage of multiple errors by the Robert Morris (2-11) to jump out to a 6-1 lead. Service aces by Cook and Funkhouser increased that lead to 11-4. When Robert Morris cut the score to five, IUPUI got back-to-back kills from Madison and another ace by Cook to make the score 19-11. A kill from Madison earned IUPUI the set win 25-18.
The second set was a back-and-forth affair until RMU took a 15-10 lead thanks to a 4-0 run. The Jags whittled their way back in to the set with multiple kills from Alan and tied the set at 19 with a kill from Pogue. Unfortunately for IUPUI, the Colonials used a 6-1 run to close out the set at 25-20.
The Jags fell behind early in the third set but managed to claw back in to the set at 7-5 after a kill from Alan. RMU took control with a 5-1 run but the Jags continue to battle getting back within two twice at 18-16 after a kill from Pogue and 20-18 after kill by Schuenemann and RMU error. Again IUPUI allowed a five-straight points from RMU as the Colonials took a 2-1 lead in the match.
Kills by Madison and
Maddie Haines put IUPUI up 11-8 in the third and an error by RMU had the Jags leading 13-11 but IUPUI would get stuck on 13 as RMU grabbed a 17-13 lead. IUPUI responded with kills from Alan and a block by Dixon and Alan to tie the set at 17. The rest of the way, IUPUI hurt itself with three errors as RMU used an 8-2 run to win set four 25-19 and the match 3-1.
UP NEXT
IUPUI and Robert Morris will face off again on Tuesday (March 15) to close the two-game set. The match against the Colonials will begin at 5 p.m. ET and be streamed on ESPN+.
