Oct. 28, 2006
BLOOMINGTON, IN – The University of Iowa volleyball team completed its season sweep of the Indiana Hoosiers with a 3-0 win Saturday night in Bloomington. Iowa (13-11, 2-10) defeated Indiana (10-14, 1-11) by scores of 30-23, 30-25 and 30-20.
“It feels really good to win again,” Iowa Head Coach Cindy Fredrick said. “It was really good to see the team play as well as they did. Our back row defense did a really good job, especially Tiana (Costanzo) and Emily (Hiza). They were passing well and making key digs – that made the difference. Our middle blockers controlled things at the net, and (Megan) Schipper and (Catherine) Smale did a good job putting the ball down.”
Smale led the way for Iowa with 14 kills and had a team-high 25 digs. Senior middle blocker Melanie Meister had 10 kills and hit at a .444 clip, while Schipper had 10 kills and a .259 attack percentage.
Hiza recorded 17 digs, while setter Kiley Fister had 44 assists.
The Hawkeyes fell into an early hole during game one, with Indiana jumping out to a 8-4 lead. Iowa came storming back and took a 12-11 lead on a kill from Jen Barcus. The Hawkeyes went on a roll from there, using a run that included three-consecutive blocks to take a 19-12 lead.
The Hoosiers wouldn’t go quietly, however, and scored five-straight to cut the lead to 19-17 and force Iowa into a timeout. Melanie Meister came out of the break red-hot and pounded out three-straight kills to put Iowa ahead 22-17. The Hawkeyes kept up the intensity, eventually taking the 30-23 win on Meister’s sixth kill of the game.
In game two, Iowa jumped out to an early lead at 14-6, only to have the Hoosiers rattle off 10-of-12 points to tie the game at 16-16. Iowa quickly re-gained the lead on a Megan Schipper kill, and began to pull away until the Hoosiers rebounded to tie the game again at 20-20. Smale responded with a kill to give the Hawkeyes a lead they would never relinquish. Indiana managed to remain close, but back-to-back kills from Smale gave Iowa the 30-25 win.
The Hawkeyes closed out the match in style during game three, never trailing and allowing just five early ties en route to the ten-point win.
Iowa returns home next weekend with a pair of conference games against Illinois (Fri., 7 p.m.) and Northwestern (Sat., 7 p.m.).
MATCH SUMMARYIOWA 30 30 30Indiana 23 25 20