TOLEDO, Ohio – The Duquesne University volleyball team defeated Purdue Fort Wayne in three sets Friday evening at the Toledo Challenge.  

Duquesne improves to 3-8 while PFW drops to 5-5. Duquesne has won two in a row.

Although no one player stood out on the stat sheet, the Dukes were able to win in straight sets with a fairly dominant performance.

Sophomore Madison Floyd had a career-high eight blocks to lead the Dukes defensively. She also pitched in with six kills to put together her best overall match of the year.

Graduate student Elizabeth Osborn tied for the team-lead with eight kills. She also had nine digs and 30 receptions.

Senior Morgan Kelly also had eight kills and totaled five blocks, which ties a season high.

Freshman Madison Grimm led the team in both service aces (3) and digs (12).

Senior Hailey Poling recorded 26 assists in the sweep.  

The difference in this one ended up being the number of attack errors for each team. Duquesne was fairly disciplined with only 18, but Purdue Fort Wayne had a whopping 33.

The Dukes also outblocked Purdue 11-6.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The first set was about as close as it could get with 15 ties. The largest lead of the set was when PFW led by four at 14-10, but Duquesne quickly scored four-straight to tie it right back up. Morgan and Osborn each had a kill to put the Dukes up two, then freshman Hanna Wilson ended the set with a perfectly placed service ace.

The second set went in a much different direction. Down 4-0, Duquesne flipped the switch and scored 10-straight points to take a commanding lead early. Shortly after, Duquesne went on another 4-0 run to take an even more commanding 15-7 lead. Once the Dukes got up 23-13, the result seemed like a foregone conclusion, but Purdue Fort Wayne did not give up. It went on a 7-1 run to make things interesting, but Duquesne eventually closed out the set.

The third and final set felt much more similar to the first set than the second. There were 13 ties in this one, with that final tie being at 21-21. Despite not being able to take the lead for most of the set, the Dukes ended on a 7-2 run to finish the sweep.

GAME NOTES

• Floyd's eight blocks set a new career high.
• Today marked the Dukes' first sweep of the season. They've now won two-straight matches.
• Duquesne has outblocked opponents 100.5-88 this season after today's 11-block performance. Those 100.5 total blocks rank second in the A-10.
• With six more service aces today, Duquesne has 73 on the year, which also ranks second in the conference.

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