Nov. 19, 2004
The Hawkeyes (10-19, 2-15) ended their woes here tonight in a five-game match against Indiana (8-20, 2-15). The victory (30-16, 30-19, 27-30, 27-30, 15-13) ended Iowa’s 15-match drought; the Hawkeyes last win was over Michigan State on September 25.
“After the first game, I just had the nicest feeling because it had been so long since we had won a game,” said Iowa Coach Cindy Fredrick “We played really good in games one and two and at the end everyone did what they needed to do.”
Iowa dominated the first and second games of the match. There were just three lead changes in those two games. In game one, Iowa lead by 20-11 when Jacqueline Huguelet served three ace serves in a row to put Iowa on top 23-11. Stacy Vitali picked up a kill to earn the victory, 30-16.
Laura Simpson had five kills and Vitali and Carolyn Giese each chipped kills apiece. Iowa had a .289 attacking percentage in the game.
Game two was even better than the first. Pam Kavadas served five points to lead the Hawkeyes to a 6-1 advantage and Iowa never trailed for the rest of the 30-19 win. As a team, Iowa hit at a .444 clip, with Vitali coming down with five kills. Huguelet had four kills and Simpson hit .750 in the game.
Indiana made adjustments to their lineup after game two and it worked as the Hoosiers fought back to stay in the match. In game three, there were five lead changes and 14 ties, with Indiana eventually taking the game, 30-17. Iowa had a .319 attacking percentage to Indiana’s .261 in the loss. The Hawkeyes also had two more kills and one more block. Iowa’s downfall was four serving errors and three serve receive errors.
The fourth game was a repeat of game three with seven lead changes and 12 tie scores. The tide started to turn in favor of the Hoosiers at the 15-15 mark. A kill by Christina Archibald put Indiana up 16-15 and they steadily built their lead on the way to the 30-17 win.
In game four, both teams had 18 kills, one block, three service aces, and one serving error. Tiana Costanzo had six kills for Iowa and Giese added five. Patton put up 16 assists.
The final game was also marked by tie scores. The final tie came at 12-12, then a Giese kill put Iowa up 13-12. Lauren Ditteon committed a hitting error to give Iowa a 14-12 advantage, but Katie Pollom earned a sideout for Indiana with a kill. The Hawkeyes won the game and the match when Patton connected with Giese in the middle for a kill.
Five Hawkeye players hit in double-digits in the match. Giese had 16, Costanzo and Simpson each had 15, Vitali had 14 and Huguelet added 13. Patton tallied 60 assists along with four kills and two blocks. Simpson led all blockers with 7 total blocks (one solo and six block assists). Kavadas had 24 digs and Costanzo had 20.
Iowa had a .341 hitting percentage compared to just .204 by Indiana. The Hawkeyes had 78 kills to 73, and also had ten blocks to only five by the Hoosiers.
“Laura had an incredible match tonight. Also, Tiana really kept us in it at many different times,” said Fredrick. “Indiana made some adjustments to their lineup for the third and fourth games, and it really worked against us. Then in the fifth game we adjusted as well and the girls responded.”
The Hawkeyes will play their final home match of the season this Sunday at 2 p.m. against Purdue. Iowa will honor the four seniors in a short presentation at the beginning of the match.