Aug. 25, 2007
IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa volleyball team opened the 2007 campaign with a heartbreaking five-game loss to No. 17 BYU, 30-21, 30-21, 19-30, 26-30, 13-15. The Hawkeyes stormed out to a two game lead, but couldn’t hold off the Cougars, who moved to 2-0 on the season.
The Hawkeyes played in front of 1,584 fans, which is the second largest home crowd in Iowa volleyball history. The single-game home attendance record of 1,690 fans was set last season against Iowa State.
Redshirt freshman Becky Walters along with true freshmen Aimee Huffman and Megan Eskew made impressive debuts for Iowa. Walters recorded 16 kills and a .412 hitting percentage along with eight block assists. Huffman was everywhere for Iowa, registering 17 assists, five kills and eight block assists. Eskew had 13 digs in her first game in Black and Gold.
Junior Laura Kremer also blocked a career-high seven shots while sophomore Megan Schipper had 14 kills.
Iowa never trailed in game one after a Catherine Smale kill started the match. With the score at 11-7 in favor of Iowa, the Hawkeye went on a 12-5 run to make the score 22-12 and put away the Cougars for a one-game lead. The Hawkeyes hit at a .355 clip in the first game.
The Hawkeyes took advantage of eight BYU errors in game two and ended the match on a 9-4 run to take a commanding 2-0 lead in the match.
The Cougars battled back in the third game as the Hawkeyes struggled on the attack. Iowa was only able to produce 10 kills and committed six errors as BYU claimed game three.
BYU jumped out to an early 8-2 lead in game four, but the Hawkeyes continued to battle and eventually tied the game at 17-17. The 17th-ranked Cougars once again took advantage of Hawkeye errors but narrowly won game four.
The fifth and final game saw both teams exchange points until BYU took a 12-9 lead. The Hawkeyes used two kills by Schipper to bring the score to 13-12 in favor of BYU, but a Cougar kill set up match point. Walters brought the Hawkeyes within one at 14-13, but another BYU kill ended the match.
Iowa returns to action Sunday at 2 p.m. against Marquette in the final match of the Hawkeye Challenge.
Click HERE to learnmore about the Big Ten Network.