Box Score
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Arielle Knafel had 18 kills to lead all players and hit .342 as No. 10 UIndy volleyball posted the season sweep of in-state rival Southern Indiana, 3-1 (25-19, 20-25, 25-22, 26-24), on Friday night at the Physical Activities Center.
"Arielle was seeing the block really well tonight and hitting around it," head coach
Jody Rogers said after her 398th career win. "She did a good job of executing the game plan to hit the ball line. She was either able to find the floor or tool it off the block and just everything possible to help us get the win."
Kristina Kerrigan added 16 kills, 13 digs, career-high four assists and two blocks, while
Brittany Anglemyer hit .370 with 12 kills and two blocks for the Greyhounds (23-3, 12-0 GLVC) to remain undefeated in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
Meghan Binkerd led all players with 50 assists, 11 digs and six kills, while
Amy Oldenburg led all players with 24 digs and
Kenzie Bruggeman added a career-high 22 against the Screaming Eagles (12-13, 8-4 GLVC). The Hounds hit .214 as a team with 67 kills, while USI hit .170 with 52 kills.
"Kenzie and Amy were all over the place in the back and really talkative to hold our back row defense together," Rogers said.
Julia Watkins had a team-high six blocks, including the match winner with
Kourtney Crawford in the fourth set.
Abbi Williams led USI with 15 kills and hit .368, while Jorae Bradbury had 41 assists and 14 digs. Kayla Heldman tallied 23 digs, while Abbey Winter led all players with eight blocks.
A 5-0 run in the first set staked the Greyhounds to a significant early advantage that would stand up the rest of the set. The Eagles did close within three, 16-13, but the Greyhounds had a 6-1 run to go up eight, 22-14. USI saved three set points until Bruggeman's back row attack eluded the defense, 25-19.
Southern Indiana dominated the opening of the set in the second with a six-point lead, 11-5, before UIndy called timeout. The lead continued to grow, 24-15, but the Greyhounds showed some fight to save five set points before Williams had a kill, 25-20. UIndy struggled to hit .021 in the set with 13 kills and 12 errors, including five USI blocks.
The Greyhounds regained control by opening the third set on an 8-3 run, but USI came back to cut its deficit to one, 16-15. Kerrigan answered with a kill and then teamed with Watkins on a block to go back up three. The Eagles came right back with two in a row, but then Binkerd had a kill and started to set up freshman
Hannah Bauer who had subbed in. She had kills on her first three swings as part of a 6-0 run to push UIndy to set point, 24-17. This time, Southern Indiana would save five set points until Kerrigan scored on the sixth for the win, 25-22.
The hosts weren't going to go quietly as they blitzed UIndy with the first five points of the fourth set on the way to a 9-2 lead. The Greyhounds were up to the challenge of fighting uphill and eventually came back to tie the score, 22-22, on Binkerd's kill.
"We started serve receiving better and got a few digs that led to Arielle putting the ball away to get some of the momentum back our way," Rogers said about the comeback. "As we started creeping back into it, we got more energized and they started feeling the tension."
The Eagles called timeout and then scored on a Winter kill and had a chance to extend the lead, but Fawn Ryan was stuffed by Kerrigan and Watkins, 23-23. Crawford hit a kill down the line for match point, but was then called for being in the net while trying to block on the next point for another tie. Kerrigan gave UIndy a second match point as she pounded a kill off the block and then Crawford and Watkins put up a wall to reject Ryan and end the match, 26-24. The Greyhounds ended up hitting .319 with 20 kills and a match-high four blocks in the big comeback.
UIndy concludes the weekend trip at Kentucky Wesleyan (10-17, 3-9 GLVC) tomorrow at 1 p.m. ET at Apollo High School in Owensboro. The Panthers swept Saint Joseph's, 3-0, on Friday night.
