Sept. 14, 2004
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When Creighton and Iowa both came into the tonight’s match with 6-1 records, someone was going to have to go home disappointed. Unfortunately, it was the Hawks on the losing end of the equation as they were swept by the Blue Jays (30-23, 30-26, 30-18).
Game one looked like a tug-of-war with neither team taking control early. Creighton scored the first point on a kill by Katy Grady, but Carolyn Giese forced a side-out with an attack for the Hawks. It was a one point game from there until the score was knotted at 15, when the Blue Jays took advantage of several Iowa attacking errors in a row to take a 24-17 lead. Iowa added a few points to their side, but lost the game 30-23.
The second game was a repeat of the first with the teams simply trading points. An ace by Lauren Bruckner tied the game 19-19. After that, Creighton went on a short run to go ahead 29-24, but a service error kept the Hawkeyes in the game. Iowa managed to score two points, but Brittany Coleman found Leah Ratzlaff on the outside for a successful kill and the 30-26 win for the visitors.
Iowa kept game three close, trailing just 9-13, when Creighton starting rolling. The Jays built a 24-14 lead at one point on the way to closing out the match with a final score of 30-18.
The Hawkeyes only hit at a .083 clip. Sophomore Tiana Costanzo paced the Hawkeyes with 12 kills and a .258 hitting percentage. Freshman Stacy Vitali continued to make her presence felt in the lineup with eight kills. Pam Kavadas tallied 15 digs. She is now eighth on Iowa’s all-time digs list with 1133 in her career.
The statistics tell the story of the game. Creighton dominated at the net with ten team blocks compared to just two by Iowa. They also had 15 more kills than the Hawks. Iowa served for two aces and Creighton tallied six.
“We really need to improve on our communication,” said Iowa Coach Cindy Fredrick. “We were simply reacting on the court instead of attacking.”
“We didn’t take them out of their game with our serving,” added Costanzo.
Fredrick hopes her team will take lessons from tonight’s match into their tournament and the Big Ten conference season as well. Iowa (6-2) hosts the Hawkeye-Holiday Inn Challenge this weekend at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawks face Eastern Washington Friday night at 7 p.m. Saturday, Iowa will take on Furman at 2 p.m. and Chicago State in the nightcap at 7 p.m.
“In order to compete we just need to transition better. We also have to have a big middle block to make it easier on the defense in the back,” said Fredrick.