Nov. 4, 2006
IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa volleyball team was topped by Northwestern, 3-1, Saturday night in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Iowa (13-13, 2-12) fell by scores of 32-30, 30-26, 26-20 and 30-25. Northwestern upped its record to 13-10 (7-7).
The Hawkeye offense was led by outside hitter Catherine Smale, who pounded out a team-best 19 kills and recorded 19 digs. Senior middle hitter Jen Barcus had her second-straight top-flight game with 18 kills, seven blocks and a .318 attack percentage.
Freshman hitter Megan Schipper was the other Hawkeye with double-digit kills with 12.
Sophomore setter Kiley Fister put up 44 assists and recorded ten digs, while sophomore libero Emily Hiza dug out a match-high 24 balls.
Game one was a back-and-forth affair featuring 11 ties and four lead changes. Neither team took more than a three-point advantage at any point in the game. Iowa tied the game up at 16-16, 17-17, 18-18, 19-19, 20-20 and 21-21 before the Wildcats began to pull away. The Hawkeyes kept the game within reach, but was unable to get over the top.
The Hawkeyes jumped out to a 5-1 lead in game two, only to have Northwestern claw back to take its first lead at 12-11. Iowa kept close and managed to tie the game up at 21-21, but the Wildcats slowly pulled away and took a 2-0 lead into the intermission.
Iowa shot to a 6-3 lead in game three, only to have Northwestern come back and tie things up with three-straight points. The teams exchanged points twice for an 8-8 tie, then Iowa got a kill from Schipper and never looked back. The Hawkeyes kept a safe distance the rest of the way, and ended things on a Barcus kill at 30-26.
Northwestern responded in game four and took advantage of 12 Hawkeye errors. Iowa’s last tie came at 12-12 on a kill from Melanie Meister, but Northwestern immediately re-claimed the lead and never gave it back. A Courtnie Paulus kill ended the match at 30-25.
Iowa returns to action next weekend against Ohio State (Fri. 6 p.m.) and Penn State (7 p.m.). All times are Central.
MATCH SUMMARYNorthwestern 32 30 26 30IOWA 30 26 30 25