Oct. 27, 2006
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – The University of Iowa volleyball team was defeated by the 13th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers, 3-0, Friday night in West Lafayette, IN. Iowa (10-13, 1-10) fell by scores of 30-25, 32-30 and 30-15.
“We just didn’t do what we needed to do in the first two games,” Iowa Head Coach Cindy Fredrick. “We did a good job of coming back, but we have a lot of young kids that have to learn how to finish games. We keep getting close, but we can’t find a way to finish.”
Sophomore outside hitter Catherine Smale had a team-high 14 kills and nine digs, while junior rightside hitter Stacy Vitali had 10 kills and hit at a .500 clip.
Sophomore setter Kiley Fister put up 27 assists on the night, while libero Emily Hiza had 12 digs.
Game one was a tight affair, with the two teams keeping within a point of each other most of the way. The Boilermakers jumped out to an early lead, but back-to-back kills from Smale and Jen Barcus gave Iowa its first lead at 5-4. From that point on, there were three lead changes and 13 ties.
Purdue took the lead for good at 19-18 with a kill. The Boilermakers looked like they may run away with things by stretching their lead to five at 24-19, but Iowa came back with six of the next eight points to cut the lead to 26-25. It was as close as Iowa would come, however, as Purdue scored then final four points to take the win.
In game two, Purdue came flying out of the gate and looked to put things out of reach early by taking a 21-14 lead. Iowa wouldn’t go quietly, however, and scored eight-out-of-nine points coming out of a timeout to tie things up at 22-22. The Boilermakers responded with a flurry of kills to re-gain the lead at 28-24, but the Hawkeyes got two kills and a Purdue error to cut the lead to 28-27 and force a timeout.
Smale then played some one-on-one with the Boilermakers, personally trading kills with the opposition to tie things up at 28-28, 29-29 and 30-30. After a Purdue kill took the score to 31-30, Smale’s final attempt was blocked to end the game at 32-30.
In game three, Iowa managed to keep things close early, but the Boilermakers rattled off ten unanswered points to take a commanding 22-8 lead, then was able to coast to the win.
The Hawkeyes return to action tomorrow night with a match against the Indiana Hoosiers (6 p.m., CT) in Bloomington, IN.
MATCH SUMMARYIOWA 25 30 15No. 13 Purdue 30 32 30