Red Wolves - IU East

It was part good-luck call, part scouting report.

Indiana University East volleyball junior right side hitter Paige Lay got a call from her mother during the Red Wolves bus ride to their match Sept. 1 at Indiana Wesleyan University.

Good luck. Oh, and did you know Indiana Wesleyan just beat the No. 18 and No. 27 teams in the Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball Coaches Poll?

"It made me pumped," said Lay (Bloomington/Normal, Ill./Parkland College). "If we could beat them it would help us in other matches."

Lay and the Red Wolves were really pumped after taming the Wildcats at 21-25, 25-13, 25-20, 25-19.

"A tremendous win for us," said IU East coach Charlie Brown. "Everyone should hear us howling now because we are playing some good volleyball."

IU East improved to 11-0, matching the school record for most wins at the start of a season. The 2007 team also started 11-0.

Indiana Wesleyan, which beat No. 18 Morningside and No. 27 Dordt this past weekend, fell to 3-2.

"It's exciting," said Lay, who led IU East with 13 kills and a .417 hitting percentage. "It shows how good we can be if we can beat teams like them."

The Red Wolves got a wakeup call in the first game. Indiana Wesleyan won 11 of the last 15 points to seize the early advantage.

IU East bounced back with a dominant performance in the second game. The Red Wolves reeled off 15 of the game's last 22 points.

Sophomore middle hitter Breezy Strete (Troy, Ohio/Troy High School) put away two of her 11 kills and the Red Wolves added two aces in a 7-1 surge that put IU East in command in Game 3.

The Red Wolves clinched the match on back-to-back kills by Lay.

"I have yet to see this team give up," Brown said. ""We were down a set tonight and didn't fold. They were determined to fight back. That's exciting to see as a coach."

IU East will take a nine-day break after piling up 11 wins in the season's first 12 days.

The Red Wolves return to action Sept. 10 at the Defiance College Invitational.

Click here to view the IU East-Indiana Wesleyan box score