Sept. 23, 2006
IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa volleyball team hung tough, but fell to 12th-ranked Ohio State, 3-1, Saturday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa (11-3) lost by scores of 25-30, 30-25, 30-24 and 30-26.
“It’s disappointing, because we really felt we had a chance to beat Ohio State,” Iowa Head Coach Cindy Fredrick said. “I felt we matched up well, and we thought we could get out of this opening weekend 1-1. We did a good job with our blocking, but we were out-killed and out-dug.”
The Hawkeyes fell into an early hole at the start of game one, but came flying back and took a 17-16 lead on a Tiana Costanzo kill. Iowa never looked back, and allowed the Buckeyes just one tie (19-19) the rest of the way.
After hitting so well in the opening game, the Hawkeye attack struggled in the second game. Ohio State jumped out to an early lead and looked to put Iowa away early, but the Hawkeyes fought back to tie things up at 19-19 on a Catherine Smale kill. Smale then gave Iowa a 22-21 lead with an ace, but the Buckeyes responded with four-straight points to force the Black and Gold into a timeout. Ohio State took a 26-23 lead out of the break, then held on for the win.
Games three and four were tightly contested, but Ohio State managed to hold off the Hawkeyes to take the match.
Smale led the way for Iowa with 17 kills, while adding 11 digs. Melanie Meister had 14 kills, nine blocks and hit at a .357 clip.
Ohio State’s Danielle Meyer had a game-high 30 kills, while Anna Szerszen had 25.
The Hawkeyes return to action next weekend with road games at Northwestern and Illinois.
MATCH SUMMARYOSU 25 30 30 30IOWA 30 25 24 26