Sept. 8, 2006
IOWA CITY – Using a balanced attack, the University of Iowa volleyball team opened the Hawkeye-Holiday Inn Challenge with a win Friday night, sweeping the Tulane Green Wave 30-23, 30-22 and 30-24. Iowa ups its record to 6-1, while Tulane falls to 3-1.
While no Hawkeye reached double-digits in kills, five players had eight or more. Catherine Smale, Jen Barcus and Melanie Meister each had nine kills, while Allison Smith and Tiana Costanzo had eight apiece.
Setter Kiley Fister recorded 38 assists on the night.
“We really distributed the ball around tonight, which was great to see,” Iowa Head Coach Cindy Fredrick said. “We had some really high hitting percentages too. It was a very good team performance.”
After falling in a small hole early in game one, the Hawkeyes took a 5-4 lead on a Tulane attack error, then charged full steam ahead the rest of the way. Iowa built its lead to as much as nine late in the game before taking the 30-23 win.
The Hawkeyes were very efficient in game two, hitting .400 as a team. Meister led the way with five kills on eight attempts.
In the final game, it was Barcus’s turn to shine. The senior middle blocker pounded out six of her nine kills on ten attempts for a team-best .600 hitting percentage. Iowa led from wire-to-wire, building a ten-point lead at one point.
For the match, the Hawkeye defense was stout, digging up 49 balls as a team. Smale led the way with 10, while Costanzo and libero Emily Hiza each added nine.
Iowa will return to action tomorrow morning with a 10 a.m. game against UMKC.
MATCH SUMMARYIOWA 30 30 30Tulane 23 22 24