Oct. 4, 2008
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CHAMPAIGN, IL – The University of Iowa volleyball team was defeated by No. 19 Illinois, 25-23, 17-25, 25-19, 15-25, Saturday night. Iowa falls to 10-6 overall and 2-2 in Big Ten play.
“We just didn’t play well tonight,” Head Coach Sharon Dingman said. “We need to take something from this weekend and have a good week of practice. It felt good to get that third set and I thought we stayed competitive for parts of the match. We need to work on some things for another tough weekend in the Big Ten.”
Junior Megan Schipper led the way with 11 kills, while senior Catherine Smale had 10. Senior Kiley Fister had 26 assists and senior Emily Hiza had a team-best 18 digs.
Illinois fought off a late Iowa rally in the first set, 25-23. Smale led the Hawkeyes four kills, while Hiza had seven digs.
Iowa took an early 4-1 lead in the frame, but Illinois knotted the score at four. After ties at five and six, Illinois gained a 7-6 advantage and stretched it to 11-8. Iowa then used a small 3-0 run to tie the score at 11. The count remained within two points with Illinois still holding the lead, with ties at 11, 12, 14 and 15. The Fighting Illini then went on a 6-1 run for a 21-16 lead. Illinois later took a 23-18 advantage, but Huffman tallied a kill and a block to make the score 23-20. The Fighting Illini responded, bringing up their first set point chance at 24-20, but Huffman had another kill, followed by a Kremer block to make the score 24-22. Illinois then recorded an attack error to bring the Hawkeyes within one at 24-23, but a Fighting Illini kill ended the Hawkeye comeback.
Iowa struggled in the second set, falling 25-17. Schipper had five kills to lead Iowa in the frame.
The second set saw five ties to start before Illinois went on a 12-2 surge to take a 21-11 lead. The Hawkeyes battled back with its own 5-1 run to make things interesting at 22-16, but the Fighting Illini closed the set with three points in the next four rallies.
Iowa came out of the locker room strong, taking the third set by a 25-19 score. Schipper had three kills, while three other players had two.
The teams traded points to open the third frame before Illinois took a 7-5 lead. Iowa kept its deficit within three points until a 7-0 Hawkeye run gave them a 17-12 advantage. It was Iowa’s turn to hold the lead, using an Illinois error and a Kremer block for a 19-13 lead. Illinois fought back to make the score 20-16, but three-straight Hawkeye points made the count 23-16. Husz killed a free-ball for Iowa’s first set point at 24-17 and Huffman ended things with a kill two rallies later.
Iowa dropped the fourth set, 25-15 to give Illinois the win.
Illinois took the early lead in the frame and later went on a 6-1 run to take a 10-4 lead. The Fighting Illini maintained its five-point lead throughout the middle of the set and later took an 18-11 advantage, forcing Iowa to take its second and final timeout. Iowa couldn’t rally for the comeback as Illinois wrapped up the match with seven points in the final 11 rallies.
Iowa will return to action Friday, when it hosts defending Big Ten and NCAA champion Penn State inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The Hawkeyes and top-ranked Nittany Lions will square off at 7 p.m.