Sept. 8, 2007
IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa volleyball team dropped a thrilling, five-game match to No. 21 LSU Saturday night. Saturday’s match was the second time this season that the Hawkeyes have lost to a ranked opponent in a five-game match.
Three Hawkeyes recorded double-digit kills, led by sophomore Megan Schipper with 17. Freshman Megan Eskew killed 16 shots while redshirt freshman Becky Walter recorded 14 kills. Schipper, Walters and junior Laura Kremer each had four block assists while Walters also had two solo blocks.
“I was really disappointed with the Iowa State match, but it was great to see us come back against LSU tonight,” Head Coach Cindy Fredrick said. “We really fought and we didn’t quit. We never gave up. We were two points away from winning. We will continue to grow and improve and tonight was a big step.”
Iowa stormed out to an early 3-0 lead in game five, but LSU battled back to tie the game at 4-4. Both teams traded points until LSU took a slim 8-7 lead as the team’s switched sides.
Iowa tied the game at 8-8, but two straight LSU points put the Tigers up 10-8. Eskew recorded a kill to bring Iowa within one at 10-9, but an LSU kill and a Hawkeye error gave the Tigers a three-point lead at 12-9. Walters and Eskew each tallied kills in between an LSU error to tie the game at 12-12.
LSU had match point at 14-13, but an Eskew kill tied the match at 14-14. The Hawkeyes then had match point after a Schipper kill, but LSU scored two points to bring up yet another match point at 17-16. An LSU service error brought up the 10th tie of the game and the Tigers were able to grind out the win, 19-17 to secure the match.
Iowa took an early 1-0 lead after winning game one, 30-27. The game remained close with 10 ties and eight lead changes. LSU had a slim 16-15 lead midway through the game, but Iowa fought back to tie the game at 18-18. The teams traded points until the game was tied again at 22-22, but the Tigers went on a 4-0 run to take a 26-22 lead. The Hawkeyes responded with a furious 8-1 run to close the game out for the lead.
LSU tied the match at 1-1 with a 30-24 win in game two. LSU took a 15-14 lead and went on an 11-5 run for a 25-19 lead. The Tigers maintained its lead for the duration of the game.
The Tigers took an early 3-0 lead in game two and kept Iowa at bay, stretching its lead to 21-11. The Hawkeyes went on a 5-0 run followed by a 10-5 run to bring the score to 28-26 in favor of LSU. The Tigers were able to gain the final two points of the game to take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Iowa battled through a tough fourth game to tie the match at 2-2 with a 30-19 win. The match was tied at 8-8 before the Hawkeyes went on a 14-6 run to take a commanding 22-13 lead. The Hawkeyes stayed tough throughout the game, keeping between an eight and nine point lead before closing the game on a 4-1 run to force a fifth game.
Iowa returns to action next weekend by hosting the Hawkeye-Holiday Inn Challenge. The Hawkeyes open their own tournament Friday at 7 p.m. against Texas-Arlington.