August 27, 2011

SPORTS: Volleyball Finishes Season Opening Tournament Winless

by Michael Hadley


The IUPUI Volleyball team finished their four game Northern Illinois Invitational Tournament with four consecutive losses, falling to No. 18 Iowa State and Cincinnati on Saturday.


After managing only one victorious set in the first day of action, the weary Jaguars were unable to another successful set. 


Falling behind early in the first set against the Cyclones of Iowa State 7-1, head coach Steve Payne was forced to take a time out and regroup. Unfortunately the rout continued and the Jags dropped the first set 25-13. The same scoreline was put up in the second set, despite a better initial start. The third set was much closer, however the Cyclones spun away with a 25-20 final set and a 3-0 match victory.


Next up was Cincinnati, another winless side whom IUPUI hoped would stumble and fall as prey. But the Jaguars were unable to manage much better against the Big East squad than any other opponent. The Bearcats were surgical, cruising to comfortable 25-15, 25-13, and 25-14 sets in their first win.



“We played well at certain points today but both Iowa State and Cincinnati proved to be a little too powerful for us and I thought we let up a little bit at the end,” remarked head coach Steve Payne. “Hopefully we can learn from playing against the high-caliber teams that we played this weekend and fix our mistakes on Tuesday against Ball State.”

IUPUI will play the Cardinals in their home opener on Tuesday in The Jungle, set to begin at 7 p.m.

DEKALB, Ill.

Match 1
IUPUI 13-13-20 (0)
Iowa St. 25-25-25 (3)

Match 2
IUPUI 15-13-14 (0)
Cincinnati 25-25-25 (3)

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