Red Wolves - IU East

A trip to Cedarville University left the Indiana University East volleyball team feeling sick, and it had nothing to do with the flu outbreak at Cedarville earlier this month.

The Yellow Jacket volleyball team beat the Red Wolves 25-15, 25-23, 19-25, 25-20 on Sept. 11 in the opening game of the Cedarville University Invitational.

It was the first loss of the season for IU East (8-1).

"We came into this tournament pretty flat," Red Wolves coach Charlie Brown said. "We can't do that against high-level teams. Cedarville brought their 'A' game, and they blitzed us. We adjusted and got into the game, but we never quite got to where we needed to be.

"We're no longer undefeated, but that's OK, because these matches are all to get us ready to be where we need to be for our conference matches."

The Red Wolves beat Cedarville (4-7) earlier this season, but found themselves clawing uphill throughout the rematch. IU East trailed throughout the first two games. The Red Wolves did reduce a 17-11 deficit in Game 2 down to 24-23, but an IU East service error on game point for the Yellow Jackets ended the comeback.

The Red Wolves got effective blocking from Breezy Strete (Troy, Ohio/Troy High School), Kristen Mahoney (Pendleton, Ind./Lincoln College) and Jessica White (Sheldon, Ill./Kankakee Community College) to gain the advantage in Game 3. The Red Wolves pulled away late to win the game.

IU East had an 18-15 lead in Game 4, but Cedarville claimed 10 of the next 12 points to clinch the match.

Brown said the result showed the difficulty of beating the same team twice in one season.

"Cedarville did play better from the last time we played them, but they scored a ton of points off of our errors," said sophomore defensive specialist Madison Qualkenbush (New Castle, Ind./New Castle High School).

Strete led IU East with 16 kills and four block assists. Mahoney and White also had four block assists apiece. Brandie Sanders made 16 digs.