Nov. 24, 2007
Champaign, IL – The University of Iowa volleyball team was swept at Illinois Saturday night. In her final match at Iowa, senior Stacy Vitali was one of three Hawkeyes to finish with seven kills.
Freshman Katie Kennedy, sophomore Megan Schipper along with Vitali all finished with seven kills to lead Iowa. Kennedy added five block assists and a .500 hitting percentage.
Illinois opened the match with a 30-23 win in game one, despite five kills (.667 hitting percentage) from Vitali and five kills (.444 hitting percentage) from Schipper.
The game started with ties at one, two, three and five before the Fighting Illini took the lead for good at 4-3. Illinois used a 7-2 run to take a 12-8 advantage and stretched its lead to 26-19. The Hawkeyes fought back with two kills from Vitali and a Huffman service ace for a 26-21 score, but Illinois managed four points in the final six rallies for the win.
The Fighting Illini stormed out to an early 5-1 lead in game two, but the Hawkeyes responded with a 6-1 surge to take a 7-6 lead. Illinois then fought back with an 8-0 run for a 14-7 advantage and kept Iowa in check, maintaining its lead for a 20-11 lead later in the game. Illinois closed out the game with a 30-19 score.
Illinois started game three with an 8-3 run, including a 5-0 surge at the start to take an early lead. The Fighting Illini later used a 5-1 run for a 15-6 lead and maintained the advantage for a 19-9 score. The Hawkeyes then used four Illinois errors along with kills from Schipper and freshman Aimee Huffman for a 6-1 run to bring Iowa within five, 20-15. The Fighting Illini kept Iowa in check after that point, taking a 24-18 lead. A 5-1 Illinois run brought up game point at 29-21, but kills from freshman Megan Eskew and Kennedy made the score 29-23. An Illinois kill closed the game at 30-23.
Iowa finishes the 2007 season with a 9-22 overall record with a 1-19 mark in Big Ten play.
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