Nov. 20, 2006
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This Week ? The University of Iowa volleyball team (13-17, 2-16) will wrap up the 2006 season at home this weekend, hosting Michigan State and Michigan.
Iowa will take on the Spartans Friday night at 7 p.m., then battle the Wolverines Saturday at 7:30 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 dropped a pair of Big Ten road matches against ranked teams last weekend. Iowa was swept at Wisconsin (30-16, 30-22, 30-20) Friday night, then lost 3-1 at Minnesota (30-21, 30-17, 25-30, 30-21) on Saturday.
In game one against Wisconsin, the Hawkeyes took a 1-0 lead on an opening volley kill from Catherine Smale. Wisconsin then quickly took a lead and held it the rest of the way. Iowa managed to keep things close early, and a Barcus kill put the Hawkeyes within one at 10-9. Wisconsin then went on a tear, stretching the lead until a Carlini kill ended the game at 30-16.
In game two, the Badgers raced out to a 10-2 lead and never looked back. Taylor Reineke ended the game with a kill at 30-22.
Wisconsin never gave Iowa a lead in game three, but the Hawkeyes scored four-of-five points at one point to tie the game up at 11-11. The Badgers responded with five consecutive points, and never looked back en route to a 30-20 win and match sweep.
The Golden Gophers dominated the first two games of the match Saturday night in Minneapolis, with Iowa getting just one tie (1-1) in game one. Minnesota jumped out to a 15-7 lead, but Iowa scored seven of the next nine points to cut the lead to 17-14. The Golden Gophers responded with six of the next nine points to go ahead 23-17. Minnesota pushed it to game point at 29-19 after with a block. Iowa fought off two game points to make it 29-21, but a Gopher kill ended the game at 30-21.
Minnesota jumped out to a 13-9 lead in game two, and exploded with a 9-0 run to move ahead 22-9. The Golden Gophers moved it to game point at 29-17, and finished it off with a kill to give Minnesota the second game.
The Hawkeyes wouldn’t go quietly, however, and took game three 30-25. With the score tied at 20, Iowa rattled off 10 of the last 15 points. The Hawkeyes hit .417 in the game, with Barcus leading the way with five kills and a .556 attack percentage. Alicia Johnson had four kills and hit at a .429 clip in the game four win.
In game four, the two teams were tied at 12, but Minnesota ran off 11 of the next 12 points to move ahead 23-13. Iowa cut the lead to 27-20, but the Golden Gophers scored three of the final four points to claim the game 30-21 and take the match.
Scouting Michigan State ? The Michigan State Spartans enter the week with a 17-11 overall record and an 8-10 conference mark. They will battle in-state rival Michigan Wednesday night before coming to Iowa City.
The Spartan offense leads the Big Ten with 16.80 kills per game, and is paced by a dynamic duo of junior hitters. Katie Johnson leads the team and is second in the conference with 4.69 kills per game, while Ashley Schatzle is fifth in the Big Ten with 4.52 kills per game.
Michigan State also leads the league in assists per game with 15.53. Senior setter Allison Ianni is third in the conference with 12.97 assists per game.
The Spartans are coached by Cathy George, who is in her second year at Michigan State.
The Spartans lead the all-time series 29-22 and have won the last three meetings. Earlier this season, Michigan State swept Iowa in East Lansing.
Scouting Michigan ? The Michigan Wolverines enter the week with a 20-11 overall mark and a 7-11 record in the Big Ten. They will take on Michigan State Wednesday night before coming to Iowa City.
The Wolverine offense is led by junior Katie Bruzdzinski, who is third in the Big Ten with a team-best 4.65 kills per game average. Bruzdzinski also contributes on defense with 2.50 digs per game. Michigan’s other weapon on offense is Lindsay Miller, who averages 3.75 kills per game.
The offense is run through Stesha Selsky, who is averaging 12.82 assists per game. She also leads the team with 3.70 digs per game.
On defense, the Wolverines lead the Big Ten with 17.36 digs per game. They also have a pair of players averaging over a block per game – Megan Bowman (1.16) and Beth Karpiak (1.14).
Michigan is led by Mark Rosen, who is in his eighth year. The Wolverines lead the all-time series 26-24, and have won the last 11 meetings. Earlier this year, Michigan swept Iowa in Ann Arbor. In Carver-Hawkeye Arena, the all-time series is tied 13-13.
Tough Schedule ? The Hawkeyes have dropped 16-of-the-last-18 matches, but it isn’t as if they are losing to a bunch of stiffs. Nine of Iowa’s losses in that stretch have come at the hands of ranked teams.
Senior Day ? On Saturday, the University of Iowa will honor its senior class of Jen Barcus, Tiana Costanzo and Melanie Meister before its season finale against Michigan.
Barcus, a 6-1 middle blocker, transferred to Iowa before the season after spending four years at Washington State. She gave Iowa an instant presence in the middle, and led the team with 1.13 blocks per game. She was second on the team with 2.67 kills per game. Earlier this season against North Dakota State, Barcus set an Iowa record with a .636 hitting percentage in a five-game match.
Costanzo, a 5-10 outside hitter, has been a steady force for Iowa this season both on the attack and in the back row. She has appeared in 101 matches during her career, and is 10th on Iowa’s all-time digs list with 1092.
Meister, a 6-1 middle blocker, has served as the team co-captain since transferring from Cal-State Fullerton in the spring of 2005. She has had a great senior year, averaging career-bests in kills per game (2.67), blocks per game (1.08) and attack percentage (.287). Earlier this season, Meister became the first Hawkeye since 2001 to be named Big Ten Player of the Week.
In the Top Five ? Sophomore setter Kiley Fister is already among the all-time leaders at Iowa in assists.
Fister has amassed 2,425 assists, which puts her fifth 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.
Attendance Up ? The Hawkeyes have been seeing more faces in Carver-Hawkeye Arena this season. The team is averaging a school-best 983 fans per game, good for 36th in the nation.
The Hawkeyes have drawn more than 1,000 fans seven times this season, after having done that just seven times previously. Iowa has seen the top six crowds of all-time this season and seven of the top nine crowds in school history this year. 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 16.88 digs per game. Michigan leads the way with 17.36 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.
The Assistant Coaches ? Dr. Mashallah (Farokh) Farokhmanesh and Chad Hanson will serve as assistants to Head Coach Cindy Fredrick again this season. Farokh, the associate head coach, is the husband of Coach Fredrick.