Iowa to face Ohio State, Penn State this weekend

Nov. 1, 2004

This Week: The Hawkeyes return home after two weeks on the road to host seventh-ranked Ohio State on Friday and fifth-ranked Penn State Saturday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Iowa vs. Ohio State match will begin at 7 p.m. and the match against Penn State is slated for a 7:30 p.m. start time due to the football game in the afternoon. Live statistics and updates of all home matches can be found on the volleyball results page at www.hawkeyesports.com under Gametracker.

Last Week: Iowa dropped Big Ten matches to Wisconsin and Northwestern on the road. The Badgers swept the Hawkeyes in three games (30-18, 30-17, 30-20). The Wildcats also won in three games over the Hawkeyes (30-23, 30-28, 30-16).

The Buckeyes: Coach Jim Stone’s squad defeated Purdue and Indiana in three games last weekend. Senior Stacey Gordon continues to lead the Buckeyes in kills with an average of 7.26 games per game. Gordon was named co-Big Ten player of the Week for her efforts; she had 29 kills and a .415 hitting percentage against Purdue, and also tallied 20 kills against Indiana. Marisa Main is averaging 14.85 assists per game and also chips in 1.25 kills per game. Three Buckeyes have over 200 digs this season, with Gordon leading the way with 3.16 per game. Danielle Meyer leads Ohio State with 75 total blocks, an average of 1.01 blocks per game.

Iowa-Ohio State Series: The Buckeyes won the last meeting in Columbus on October 2 in three games (30-24, 30-27, 30-27). That win gave Ohio State a 40-8 edge over Iowa in the series.

The Nittany Lions: Coach Russ Rose and his Penn State team swept Indiana and Purdue in three games last weekend. Freshman Kate Price led the Lions in kills in both matches, with 18 and 16 kills, respectively. Price, a 6-2 outside hitter, is second on the team with 4.00 kills per game to senior Ashley Pederson who is averaging 4.19 kills. Sam Tortello has 984 assists for an average of 13.67 per game. Tortello also averages 1.28 kills per game. Defensively, Kaleena Walters averages 5.71 digs per game and Cassy Salyer leads the team with 75 total blocks.

Iowa-Penn State Series: The Nittany Lions swept the Hawkeyes in three games in University Park on October 1 (30-15, 30-17, 30-18). Penn State dominates the series 26-0.

In Fredrick’s words: “We are still dealing with illness on the team, but our team spirits are good. We will find out on Wednesday whether or not Stacy Vitali will be able to play this weekend. She is feeling a lot better and has more energy. Laura is also doing a lot better, but after playing this weekend, she is feeling pretty weak.

We are trying to stress to the team that there are just some things that are beyond our control, and this situation that we are dealing with is one of them. Our message to the players is that there are some things that you can control, and some that you can’t and it doesn’t help to worry about the things that you can’t.

The bad thing is that this illness and its effect on our team has taken away our focus. We really need everyone to step up on the court, and that is definitely not happening. It’s frustrating because we do have the ability, but it isn’t being shown on the court.”

Making History: Senior libero Pam Kavadas has 413 digs this season for a career total of 1,385. That ranks her third on Iowa’s all-time dig list. Janet Moylan (1987-1990) is Iowa’s all-time dig leader with 1,931.

Fellow senior Carolyn Giese is also chasing the record books. Giese has 273 kills this season for Iowa, a team leading 3.46 kills per game. For her career, Giese has 843 kills out of 2,201 attempts. Her attacking percentage of .211 puts her at number 17 on the Iowa all-time attack percentage list.

Big Ten News: In Big Ten matches, Justeen Patton has cracked the top ten with 304 assists in 36 games for an average of 8.44 assists per game. Lauren Bruckner is ninth with ten aces, for an average of 0.26 ace serves per game. In 39 conference games, Pam Kavadas has 188 digs, for an average of 4.82 per game, fourth-best in the league.

Counting all games played this season, Pam Kavadas is tenth with 24 service aces in 82 games for an average of 0.29 per game. Kavadas is also third with 413 digs for an average of 5.04 digs per game. Iowa is sixth in service aces with 102 aces in 82 games for an average of 1.24 per game. Illinois leads the Big Ten with 130 aces this season, an average of 1.67 per game. The Hawkeyes are fourth in digging with 1318 digs in 82 games for 16.07 digs per game. Minnesota is tops with 19.50 team digs per game.