Oct. 30, 2006
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This Week ? The University of Iowa volleyball team (13-11, 2-10) returns home this weekend for a pair of conference matches.
The Hawkeyes will battle Illinois Friday night at 7 p.m., then take on the Northwestern Wildcats Saturday at 7 p.m.
Hawkeyes on the Web ? If you can’t make it to North Carver this weekend, you can still follow all of the action on hawkeyesports.com, where a live audio broadcast and livestats will be available.
Play-by-play from the voice of Iowa volleyball Brian Wilson and former Hawkeye Barb (Willis) Randall can be found by clicking on the Hawkeye All-Access link at hawkeyesports.com, then selecting the game you would like to listen to. To check out the livestats, just click on the “gametracker” link on the schedule page.
Web Conference ? Iowa Head Coach Cindy Fredrick will be hosting a weekly “Web Conference” every Tuesday this season.She will address a variety of topics, from the state of the team to that week’s opponents.
Hawkeye fans can get in on the act and ask Coach Fredrick questions of their own by emailing them to AskCoachFredrick@yahoo.com. The coach will answer as many fan questions as possible.
Last Week ? The Hawkeyes returned to the win column this weekend by splitting a pair of Big Ten matches. Iowa fell to 13th-ranked Purdue, 3-0, on Friday, then rebounded to sweep the Indiana Hoosiers Saturday.
Game one against Purdue 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 Catherine 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.
Against the Hoosiers Saturday, 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 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.
Scouting Illinois ? The Illinois Fighting Illini come into the week with a 13-9 record and a 4-8 mark in the Big Ten Conference. Illinois will play Northwestern Wednesday night before coming to Iowa City.
The Illinois offense is led by outside hitter Kayani Turner, who leads the Big Ten with 4.86 kills per game. Middle blocker Vicki Brown is second on the team with 3.82 kills per game, and also averages 1.11 blocks per game. Brown is also fourth in the conference with a .343 hitting percentage.
The offense is run by setter Lizzie Bazzetta, who leads the Big Ten with 13.92 assists per game.
On defense, freshman libero Ashley Edinger is fifth in the conference with 4.74 digs per game.
Illinois is coached by Don Harden, who is in his 11th year. The Fighting Illini lead the all-time series 40-13. Earlier this season, Illinois defeated the Hawkeyes 3-1 in Champaign.
Scouting Northwestern ? The Northwestern Wildcats come into the week with an 11-10 mark and a 5-7 record in the Big Ten. Northwestern plays Illinois Wednesday night before coming to Iowa City.
Northwestern’s attack is led by Lindsay Anderson, who averages 3.46 kills per game. Four other players average more than 2.20 kills per game – Courtnie Paulus (2.82), Chelsy Hyser (2.25), Brittney Aldridge (2.22) and Julie Purcell (2.21).
Aldridge (1.14) and Hyser (1.12) lead the team in blocks, while freshman libero Kate Nobilio is second in the league with 4.92 digs per game.
Northwestern is coached by Keylor Chan, who is in his seventh year. The Wildcats lead the all-time series 29-23-1, and swept Iowa in Evanston earlier this season.
Get Out the Brooms ? Iowa’s 3-0 win over Indiana Saturday gives the Hawkeyes a season-sweep of the Hoosiers for the second-straight year.
Iowa has now won five in a row against Indiana, their longest active winning streak against a Big Ten team. Iowa Head Coach Cindy Fredrick is 5-1 against the Hoosiers in her Hawkeye career.
Moving Up the List ? Sophomore setter Kiley Fister is already among the all-time leaders at Iowa in assists.
This past weekend, Fister raised her total to 2,229 and passed Jitka Stehnova (2002-03) for fifth place on the all-time list. She is now behind Barb Zvonek (1995-98), who is in fourth with 3,153
Janet Moylan (1987-90) is Iowa’s all-time leader with 5,471.
Costanzo Digging Into Top Ten ? Junior Tiana Costanzo is currently 11th on Iowa’s all-time digs list with 1,038. The Escondido, CA, native is just 38 digs behind Ellen Mullarkey (1984-87) for 10th on the list. Janet Moylan (1987-09) is Iowa’s all-time leader with 1,931.
Attendance Up ? The Hawkeyes have been seeing more faces in Carver-Hawkeye Arena this season. The team is averaging a school-best 918 fans per game, good for 34th in the nation.
The Hawkeyes have drawn more than 1,000 fans five times this season, after having done that just seven times previously. Iowa has seen the top four crowds of all-time this season and five of the top seven crowds. Iowa drew a school-record 1,690 fans to the Iowa State game on August 26.
Digstown ? As a team, the Hawkeyes are second in the Big Ten with 16.84 digs per game. Michigan leads the way with 17.52 digs per game.
Win Number 400 ? Iowa Head Coach Cindy Fredrick won her 400th career collegiate game on October 6 with a 3-0 (30-20, 30-24, 30-23) win over Indiana.
Coach Fredrick is now 400-292 in her career, with a 36-49 record at the University of Iowa.
Take Me To Your Leader ? Senior middle blocker Melanie Meister and sophomore libero Emily Hiza are the Hawkeye captains this season.