Box Score 1 | Box Score 2

PENSACOLA, Fla. – The No. 10 UIndy volleyball came all the way back from a two-set deficit to knock off No. 2 Tampa, 3-2 (23-25, 18-25, 25-18, 26-24, 15-13), in its second five-set match of the day at the Hemingway's Island Grill Invitational at the UWF Field House. The Greyhounds (1-1) dropped their opening match of the day against No. 5 Central Missouri, 3-2 (16-25, 25-16, 25-14, 24-26, 15-7).

"It's hard to win three sets in a row against a great team like Tampa, but my team showed so much fight and I'm incredibly proud of them," head coach Jody Rogers said. "Even if we lost, it was going to help us in the long run to play under this much pressure against great volleyball teams, but this team wasn't going to lose tonight. Now we have to come back tomorrow and follow this up with two more quality performances if we want to beat Lock Haven and West Florida."

The match came down to the wire as there were 11 ties and five lead changes alone in the fifth set. Tampa led, 8-7, when the teams changed sides of the court, but UIndy went on a 5-2 run to take the lead, 12-10, after a kill by Arielle Knafel. The Spartans (1-1) came back to tie, but freshman Hannah Bauer put UIndy back on top as the team's traded points to keep it tied, 13-13. The Spartans then committed their 12th service error of the night for a UIndy match point.

"We'd been serving short all match because Tampa runs a middle-based offense and they had trouble handling the short serve to effectively get into their offense," Rogers explained. "Amy (Oldenburg) served short again and they made a bad pass and the setter couldn't get off a good set and the ball ended up in the net."

Oldenburg ended up leading all players with 24 digs, while sophomore Kim Trojan had a career-high 17 digs as UIndy ended with 20 more digs than UT (83-63).

"Amy and Kim played great defense. They were everywhere," Rogers said. "In the fifth set, we played with great heart and they just wanted it more than Tampa."

Offensively, senior Kristina Kerrigan had 25 kills on a career-high 59 swings to hit .288 and chipped in 15 digs. Knafel added her first career double-double with 21 kills and 10 digs, while junior Brittany Anglemyer hit .450 with a career-high 10 kills. Sophomore Meghan Binkerd tied her career high with 59 assists as UIndy hit .259 as a team.

"Kristina is amazing. She comes every match ready to play," Rogers said after 47 kills by Kerrigan on day one to move into fourth in UIndy history with 1,303 career kills. "She always has the other team's best blocker on her, plus all our players are looking to her as a leader. She just elevates all of us."

The team dropped the first two sets as Tampa got its offense rolling and stifled UIndy at the net with a combined seven total blocks. The Greyhounds got it rolling at the beginning of the third set with leads at 7-4 and 15-11 that forced Tampa to burn timeouts. UIndy continued to pull away as it hit .405 in the set with 18 kills, while limiting Tampa to 12 kills and .216 attacking.

The fourth set was tied after 20 points until UIndy built a small cushion, 14-11, after an attack error. The Spartans then came back with four in a row, 15-11, until UIndy called time. Senior Kourtney Crawford scored to tie the set, that remained no more than a one-point differential until 24-all when the Hounds were able to get back-to-back kills by Anglemyer and Knafel to force the fifth set.

"The only change we made was to put Hannah in and she really saved the day for us and gave us a lift. Overall, though it wasn't so much that we made any adjustments as a coaching staff," Rogers said. "The players just stepped up their game. We started to do a much better job with our passing on the first ball and that ignited the offense."

UIndy hit .302 with another 18 kills in the fourth set.

Tampa was led by Jessica Yingling with 19 kills and 10 digs, while two other players had 12 kills.

CENTRAL MISSOURI RECAP

Senior Kristina Kerrigan had 22 kills and 16 digs, while sophomore Arielle Knafel added 16 kills and nine digs, but No. 5 Central Missouri hung on to defeat No. 10 UIndy, 3-2 (16-25, 25-16, 25-14, 24-26, 15-7), in each team's opening match of the Hemingway's Island Grill Invitational at the UWF Field House.

Sophomore Meghan Binkerd dished 44 assists for the Greyhounds (0-1), while senior Amy Oldenburg added 20 digs against the Jennies (1-0).

UCM hit .261 as a team (68-22-176), while limiting UIndy to .188 attacking (60-27-176). The Jennies had five players record 11 or more kills, led by Bradye Peniston with 16, while Julia Bates had 48 assists and Annie Reilly had 21 digs.

"You get to that level you have to play a little bit better and make a few less errors and they played better in the fifth set," head coach Jody Rogers said. "This team definitely has the ability to fight back. I'm really proud of the way we played, but we need to improve because this is a marathon and not a sprint. This weekend is about what we need to do to get better."

The two teams went back-and-forth in a fourth set that had 20 ties and 10 lead changes, but the Jennies appeared to have control near the end, 21-18, after a 3-0 run that forced a UIndy timeout. The Crimson and Grey responded with four points in a row on a Kourtney Crawford kill, Brittany Anglemyer solo block and two Kerrigan kills. Central Missouri came back with three of the next four points to earn match point, 24-23, but Anglemyer's kill evened the set. The Jennies missed an attack on the next point and then Knafel scored on set point, 26-24, to send the match to the fifth.

It was all Jennies in the deciding frame as the Greyhounds committed four consecutive errors to start the fifth set on the way to falling behind 10-3. UIndy was never able to mount a serious challenge as Central Missouri was able to hang on, 15-7.

The match began with the Greyhounds in control by going up 5-1 in the first set after a Julia Watkins kill and eventually building an eight-point lead, 15-7, after another Watkins kill. The Greyhounds went on to hit .517 in the first set after Kerrigan closed it out with two kills in a row, 25-16.

The Jennies made the adjustment in the next two sets to hold UIndy to .022 attacking, while upping their percentage to .300 in winning 25-16, 25-14.

"We were going fast early and getting the ball in the court, but then they made some adjustments," Rogers said. "They started blocking balls on us and we got out of sorts. It was chess match. We were both changing our line-ups to counter what the other team was doing."

The Greyhounds will play Lock Haven (0-2) at 9 a.m. after they played two competitive matches against Tampa and West Florida and then conclude with the host Argonauts (1-0) at 2 p.m.