Nov. 25, 2006
IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa volleyball team ended its 2006 season Saturday night with a 3-0 loss to the Michigan Wolverines in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa fell by scores of 30-18, 31-29 and 30-26.
The Hawkeyes finish the 2006 campaign with a record of 13-19 and 2-18 in the Big Ten Conference.
“We’ve done this a lot this year,” Head Coach Cindy Fredrick said. “We just never really figured out how to finish a game. Michigan gave us some chances, but we didn’t have an answer for them.”
The Hawkeyes honored their senior class of Melanie Meister, Jen Barcus and Tiana Costanzo before the game.
“I am really proud of our senior class this year,” Fredrick said. “Its not the type of season you want to go out on, but they played hard all year. Mel and Jen gave us a great presence in the middle, and Tiana played great defense for us. It was a great senior class.”
Meister led the offense in her last game at Carver, putting down 10 kills, five blocks and a .320 attack percentage. Barcus had five kills in her final game, while Costanzo recorded 12 digs.
Sophomore Catherine Smale had seven kills and 17 digs on the night, while sophomore Laura Kremer has six kills and a .294 attack percentage.
The Wolverines led from wire-to-wire in game one, led by Kate Bruzdzinski’s eight kills. She ended with a match-high 20 on the night.
Game two was a thriller, with the teams staying neck-and-neck the whole way. A Megan Schipper kill gave Iowa a game-point serve at 29-28, but Bruzdzinski came up with a kill to tie things at 29-29. Michigan then got a kill from Erin Penn and a service ace from Stesha Selsky to take the game at 31-29.
In game three, Iowa kept things close most of the way and managed to tied things up at 19-19 with three consecutive points. The Wolverines took off from there, however, and slowly extended their lead until a Sarah Draves kill ended the match at 30-26.
MATCH SUMMARYMichigan 30 31 30IOWA 18 29 26