The SDSU volleyball team played the Summit League leading Fort Wayne Mastadons this past Saturday  in a  Hobo Day matchup on Oct. 27.

After earning a victory the night before against the Oakland Golden Grizzlies, the Jackrabbits (16-9, 8-5 Summit) made their way to a second straight victory, defeating Fort Wayne, 3-2.

“To be at home and to have a great weekend like that, where we’ve got two quality opponents in here that came in and did a great job against us, and to have the crowd back which is fantastic, and they did a great job supporting us tonight, and certainly great to get any win in the conference, but when you beat the top team in the conference, it’s certainly going to feel a little better tonight.” head coach Phil McDaniel said after the game.

The Jacks got off to a quick start, winning the first set 25-20.

“We blocked the ball right out of the gate,” McDaniel said. “If you noticed, we kind of got in their heads a little bit, and they started tipping a lot more which is good for us because then we can transition and get back up and attack.”

After surrendering the second set in a very close loss at 25-22, the Jacks didn’t seem to lose focus as they went and won the third set by a score of 26-24.

“I think in the second set they came out a little tougher,” McDaniel said. “We flipped it back in the third set and got control.”

The fourth set came incredibly close for the Jackrabbits once again, as they came up short in a loss of 28-26.

Kelli Fiegen, dissatisfied with set number four, was prepared to take it all in set five.

“We were so close and we thought we had that one,” Fiegen said. “That just fueled us more going into the fifth set, everybody focused on doing their job and executing their role.”

The Jacks did just that, as they made their way to a 15-11 victory in set five, winning the match 3-2.

“It isn’t about knowing they’re number one,” McDaniel said. “We had to block well tonight, we had to dig the ball incredibly well … All credit to IPFW, they’re a fantastic team, and we had to come up and step up to challenge them tonight.”

Fiegen finished the match with 15 kills and  block assists in the Jacks’ victory, and Margit Hansing finished with 13 kills, also leading the Jacks with 24 digs.

“We just really wanted to focus on what we do best and what we do well,” Fiegen said. “Executing our side of the court, and then trying to best prepare for what we thought they were going to do.”

Being Senior Night for the Jacks, it seemed to be the perfect time for them to win, as they will be saying goodbye to six seniors after this season.

“It was good,” Fiegen said. “It doesn’t seem like Senior Night, but it was a good win, especially against number one. I won’t complain.”