'Dons Drop Summit Tournament Opener in Five

Friday, November 18

Fort Wayne, Ind.

7:30 p.m.

Purdue Fort Wayne

21-9

Oral Roberts

20-9

Oral Roberts

IPFW

Photo by: Lucas Carter

11/18/2011 10:23:00 PM | Women's Volleyball

Box Score

BOX SCORE

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - The IPFW Mastodons dropped its opening match of the 2011 Summit League Tournament, falling in five sets to the Golden Eagles of Oral Roberts University, 18-25, 25-21, 22-25, 25-22, 15-8.

The loss ends the season for IPFW with a 21-9 record, the program's eighth 20-win season in the last nine years, and also ends the career of senior Alli Hook, who finishes her career with 323 total blocks, the 10th highest career total in program history.

IPFW totaled a dozen service aces, the fifth highest single-match total in Summit League Tournament history, and the tenth most in school history. Tessa McGill had a team-leading four aces, while three other players (Emily Spencer, Kendall Wienkes, and Jen Milligan) each added a pair.

Spencer finished with a team-high 12 kills, as Hook, Jessie Manwaring, and Haley Emenhiser each chipped in eight, and Wienkes seven. Megan Steenhuysen dished out 40 assists and added 10 digs, while Tessa McGill had a team-high 13 digs in the loss. Manwaring and Steenhuysen each had five blocks to lead the team.

The Mastodons dominated out of the gate, hitting .440 in the opening set en route to a 25-18 dominating set win.

Oral Roberts answered back in the second set, using runs of 6-0 and 7-1 to pull away late in the 25-21 Golden Eagle win.

IPFW use a 5-0 run early in the third set to lead 5-1, and looked like it would run away by leading 15-5. The feisty ORU squad would not go so easily, cutting the deficit to as few as two at 24-22, before Wienkes ended the comeback hopes with a kill, giving the set its 25-22 final score.

In the fourth set, the Mastodons found themselves trailing by eight at 16-8 before IPFW started to fight back, using an 8-0 run behind the serving of McGill, who had half of her four service aces during the run, and then a 4-0 run aided by a Jen Milligan ace to lead by 21-18. With the crowd and momentum behind them, ORU was able to piece together a 5-0 run, and would not trail again, holding on in the back-and-forth set 25-22.

IPFW led 3-2 early, before ORU scored four straight points, and would not trail again. The Mastodons tied the set at six, and at seven, but could only score one more point the rest of the way, as the Golden Eagles ended the set on a 8-1 run, including scoring the last six total points, in advancing to the championship match of the tournament.

On Saturday night, Oral Roberts will face off against the top seed, the North Dakota State Bison at 7 p.m. at the Gates Sports Center.

~Dons~