WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL: The Thunderbirds found themselves down 2-0 at the intermission, but came roaring out of the break to tie the match at 2-2, but ultimately came up short, falling in the final set 15-11 in a loss to IUPUI on Thursday night. The defeat leaves the Thunderbirds with a 5-14 overall record and 3-7 mark in Summit League play. IUPUI moved to 14-6 and 6-4 in conference with the win.

"This was another great match," head coach Debby Baker said. "It obviously was not the result we wanted, but it boils down to inexperience. I think our girls got a little tight down the stretch and our serving and passing suffered. I think our crowd helped us out a great deal tonight and it was great to be playing at home."

The Thunderbirds dropped the first two sets 25-16 and 25-23, narrowly losing the second set after having tied the score at 20-20 late in the stanza. However, the third set would be a different story as SUU captured the first point of the frame on a kill by Tess Lawrence. The team never surrendered the lead as the T-Birds tallied only three errors and paired it with 18 kills for a .417 attacking percentage. Analaine Pelaez paced the team in the set with nine kills on 13 attempts as Southern Utah took the 25-18 victory..

The Thunderbird attack fell off a bit in the fourth set, but the team was able to capitalize on three service aces and seven IUPUI errors to break a 16-16 deadlock late in the frame. Jazmine Ma'afala's kill gave the T-Birds a 17-16 lead and SUU punctuated the 25-19 set victory with a Megan Clyde service ace.

The two teams were neck and neck in the final set as the lead changed hands on six occasions and was tied on another nine. The Jaguars made their move with the score tied at 10-10, recording a 5-1 run down the stretch to snatch the victory away from the Thunderbirds.

Pelaez led all attackers with a career-high 27 kills in the match while also recording 12 digs for the double-double. Pelaez was also one of four Thunderbirds to record two services aces during the match. Ma'afala and Kristi Daffer followed Pelaez in kills with 19 and ten, respectively. Daffer led the team with a .435 attacking percentage as she filled in for an injured Cashaana Renfro in the middle. Courtney Lelepali led the team with 18 digs, but was joined in double digits by Caitlin Jensen (11) and Ma'afala (15) who recorded her ninth double-double of the season.

Southern Utah will be back in action on Saturday when the Thunderbirds host the Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks. That game is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in the Centrum Arena.