Aug. 28, 2007
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IOWA CITY – This Week ? The University of Iowa volleyball team travels to Greeley, CO, this weekend to compete at the Northern Colorado Tournament. The Hawkeyes open play against UC Riverside Friday at 3 p.m. Iowa will face St. Francis (PA) Saturday at 12:30 p.m. and host school Northern Colorado at 8 p.m.
All times listed are central.
Hawkeyes on the Web ? Fans can follow all of the action from the Northern Colorado Tournament this weekend on hawkeyesports.com, where a live audio broadcast and Gametracker will be available.
Play-by-play from the voice of Iowa volleyball Brian Wilson along with Gametracker can be found on the volleyball schedule page of hawkeyesports.com.
Live audio will be available for all 31 matches this fall.
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.
Second Place Finish in Hawkeye Challenge ? Iowa opened the 2007 season with a tough, 3-2 loss against No. 17 BYU, but rebounded with a 3-1 win over Marquette to finish second at the Hawkeye Challenge.
Heartbreaker Against the Cougars ? Iowa took the first two games against the 17th-ranked ranked team in the country, but fell in the final three games.
Iowa never trailed in game one after a Catherine Smale kill started the match. With the score 11-7 in favor of Iowa, the Hawkeyes went on a 12-5 run to make the score 22-12 and put the Cougars away 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 on a 9-4 run to take a commanding 2-0 lead.
The Cougars battled back in the third game to bring the match score to 2-1 and evened the match at two games a piece in 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 sophomore Megan Schipper to bring the score to 12-12, but a Cougar kill set up match point. Redshirt freshman Becky Walters brought the Hawkeyes within one at 14-13, but another BYU kill ended the match.
Hawkeyes Down Marquette ? The Hawkeyes put on an impressive performance against Marquette, picking up their first win of the season by a 3-1 score.
Iowa took advantage of Marquette errors in game one for a 30-26 win.
Game two remained within three points the entire way until Marquette was able to gain a 30-27 advantage to even the match.
The Golden Eagles jumped out to a 16-10 lead in game three, but Iowa responded with a 6-1 run and eventually tied the match at 24-24. The Hawkeyes went on a five-point run to bring up game point at 29-24 and freshman Signe Mueller ended the game with a service ace.
Iowa finished game four on a 9-0 run to earn its first victory of the season.
Scouting UC Riverside ? The UC Riverside Highlanders open their season at the Northern Colorado Tournament.
UC Riverside finished last season with a 2-25 overall record and a 0-14 mark in the Big West Conference. The Highlanders return 11 letterwinners from last year’s squad.
The Highlanders are coached by Sue Gozansky. This is the first meeting between the two teams.
Scouting St. Francis ? The St. Francis (PA) Red Flash also open their season at the Northern Colorado Tournament.
The Red Flash ended the 2006 season with a 19-14 record and a second place finish in the Northeast Conference with a 7-1 mark. They return outside hitter Kristin Buter, who was an all-NEC selection a year ago.
The Red Flash are coached by Scott Gleason, who was named the NEC Coach of the Year in 2006. Iowa leads the all-time series, 2-0.
Scouting Northern Colorado ? The Northern Colorado Bears are 0-3 this season.
Dulcie Stone leads the Bear attack with 3.57 kills per game. Kenzie Shreeve is averaging 3.07 kills per game.
Lindsey McDaniel and Lauren Carter lead the team in assists. Carter has 91 assists (7.00 per game), while McDaniel has 52 (8.67 per game).
Northern Colorado is coached by Lyndsey Benson. This is the first meeting between the two teams.
Three Hawkeyes Named to the All-Tournament Team ? Junior Kiley Fister, sophomore Megan Schipper and redshirt freshman Becky Walters were named to the Hawkeye Challenge all-tournament team.
Walters Shines in Debut ? Redshirt freshman Becky Walters was impressive in her Hawkeye debut. She led the team with 16 kills and hit at a .412 clip against No. 17 BYU Friday. She also tallied six block assists and was responsible for 19 Hawkeye points.
Walters picked up where she left off against Marquette, leading the way with 11 kills, two solo blocks and five block assists. She led the team again with 15.5 points scored.
Freshman Show They Belong ? Four of Iowa’s freshmen played important roles over the weekend.
Aimee Huffman played and started in all nine games for the Hawkeyes and filled in wherever she was needed. The Poth, TX, native recorded eight kills, 24 assists, 13 digs and 11 block assists.
Megan Eskew also played in all nine games with 12 kills and 21 digs.
Katie Kennedy recorded four block assists and two kills against No. 17 BYU in her Hawkeye debut.
Signe Mueller served up an ace to end game three and served the final six points of game four against Marquette to help seal the first win of the season.
Attack Percentage Story vs. BYU ? Iowa’s attacking percentage against No. 17 BYU tells the story of the match. In the first two games, the Hawkeyes tallied a .355 and .344 hitting percentage to gain a 2-0 lead in the match. Iowa then fell to a .093 and .095 percentage in games three and four, losing both games.
The Hawkeyes hit at .370 in game five, but couldn’t match the Cougars’ .390 percentage for the win.
Block Party vs. Marquette ? Iowa recorded a total of 20 blocks against Marquette, which was the first time since the 1997 season a Hawkeye team registered 20 or more team blocks.
Iowa tallied 21.5 blocks at Northwestern on November 15, 1997. Iowa lost the match, 3-2.
The school record for blocks in a four-game match is 25 against Michigan in 1993.
Out-Blocking the Opponents ? Iowa dominated both No. 17 BYU and Marquette at the net, registering a total of 34.5 blocks over the weekend.
The Cougars were only able to block five Iowa shots while the Golden Eagles blocked 10 Hawkeye kill attempts.
As a team, Iowa is out-blocking its opponent, 34.5-15.
Almost a Record Crowd vs. BYU ? Iowa’s opening match against 17th-ranked BYU drew 1,584 fans, which was the second-largest crowd in Iowa volleyball history.
The largest crowd in Iowa volleyball history is 1,690 fans, set against Iowa State in 2006.
VolleyBlog ? Hawkeye juniors Catherine Smale and Emily Hiza will be blogging throughout the season for hawkeyesports.com. Both student-athletes will be discussing everything from road trips to what it’s like being an athlete at the University of Iowa.
Click HERE to learn more about the Big Ten Network.