Volleyball Clinches Playoff Berth in Four Sets over Oral Roberts

Saturday, October 29

Fort Wayne, Ind.

7:00 PM

Purdue Fort Wayne

18-7, 11-3Summit

Oral Roberts

19-6, 12-3Summit

Oral Roberts

IPFW

Photo by: Lucas Carter

Volleyball Clinches Playoff Berth in Four Sets over Oral Roberts

10/29/2011 9:52:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

BOX SCORE | PHOTO GALLERY

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The IPFW Mastodons clinched a berth into the 2011 Summit League Tournament on Saturday night with a four-set victory over the Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts (25-16, 25-21, 23-25, 25-18).

Kendall Wienkes put down a match-high 17 kills, while adding four service aces and 16 digs. Tessa McGill, the defending Summit League Defensive Player of the Week erupted for 33 digs, including 15 in the fourth set alone. Jessie Manwaring and Megan Wiler each had four blocks for IPFW in the win.

Emily Spencer and Wiler each had seven kills for IPFW, as Megan Steenhuysen dished out 42 assists. Wienkes and Spencer each reach double-figure digs with 16 and 13, each, while Steenhuysen and Jen Milligan missed double-figure digs by just one. Steenhuysen added four blocks from her setter position, while Alli Hook added three.

Oral Roberts (19-6, 12-3 Summit League) jumped out to a quick 8-5 lead, the visitors' largest lead of the opening set before IPFW (18-7, 11-3 Summit) rallied for five straight points, including a kill and two aces from Wienkes, to give IPFW the two-point lead. The Mastodons would hold onto its lead for the remainder of the set, leading by as many as eight at 21-13, cruising to the 25-16 first-set win.

The Mastodons scored the first three points of the second set and never looked back, leading by as many as six at 9-3 and never trailing, sending the 'Dons into intermission with a 2-0 advantage after the 25-21 second-set outcome.

The Golden Eagles scored the first two points of the third set, and led by two at 9-7 before IPFW rattled off four consecutive points to turn the tables and lead by two at 11-9. The Mastodons didn't trail again until ORU used a 3-0 run to turn a 20-18 deficit into a 21-20 advantage. The teams proceeded to tie the score at 21, 22, and 23, before the visitors got a kill from Joana Gruber and an IPFW attack error to take the third set 25-23.

IPFW trailed briefly in the fourth and final set, the last time at 14-13, before IPFW closed the door on the match with a 12-5 match-ending run, closing the contest on a combo block from Steenhuysen and Wiler.

With her 33 digs, McGill jumps three former IPFW standouts (Fabiana Souza, Cynear Martins, and Jamie Schwartz) into fourth in career digs all-time at IPFW with 1,466 while also moving past Brittany Dunn into 12th in career digs in Summit League history.

While McGill increased her double-figure streak to 33 straight matches, another long streak ended, as Spencer's 24-match double-figure kill streak was snapped, as the freshman was held shy of double-figure kills for the first time in her career, the longest streak to start a career in program history, and the third longest overall such streak in IPFW history.

The Mastodons return to action on November 4, when the team travels to Kansas City, Missouri, to face off against the Kangaroos of UMKC, in a 5 p.m. EST first serve.

~Dons~