Iowa Falls To No. 11 Purdue, 3-0

Stats

Oct. 8, 2011

Box Score

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IOWA CITY, Iowa– The University of Iowa volleyball team dropped a 3-0 decision to No. 11 Purdue Saturday evening inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Senior Megan Eskew led Iowa with 10 kills. Sophomore Nikki Dailey dished out 31 assists and sophomore Bethany Yeager picked up 14 digs.

“We did some nice things tonight,” said head coach Sharon Dingman, “but we weren’t able to slow Purdue’s offense down. Part of that goes to serving. We didn’t serve aggressively, and when we tried to we had a lot of service errors. That made blocking more difficult which makes the backside more difficult.”

Iowa dropped the opening frame, 25-19, against Purdue’s .410 attack percentage. The Boilermakers took an early advantage by opening the set with a 6-1 run. The Hawkeyes would later use a 4-0 run to pull within two, 16-14, before Purdue regained momentum and advanced their led, 20-15. The Boilermakers eventually ended the match on a 5-2 run. Eskew led Iowa with five kills. Dailey collected 11 assists and Yeager grabbed seven digs.

The Boilermakers grabbed a 2-0 match advantage with a 25-13 win in the second set. The Hawkeyes used kills from Mallory Husz and Eskew to battle to an early 4-4 tie, but Purdue fought for a 7-4 lead and eventually used a 6-0 run to widen the gap, 18-9. The Hawkeyes were unable to answer and Purdue finished the frame with an 8-4 run. Iowa was led by freshman Alex Lovell who had four kills. Dailey handed out 12 assists and Yeager recorded four digs.

Purdue finished the straight-set sweep with a 25-21 decision in the final frame. Sophomore Rachael Bedell provided a big lift off the bench for Iowa, slamming nine kills in 16 attempts, but the Boilermakers used five kills from their All-Big Ten performer Ariel Turner to close the final frame and seal the 3-0 victory.

“Rachael had a tough weekend last week, but she came in last night and did a great job and she came in tonight and played very well,” said Dingman. “I’m super proud of the way she came in and played. We ask her to prepare for different positions, so she has her hands full. But she did a great job of being prepared.”

The Hawkeyes return to Big Ten action Friday, Oct. 14 in Minneapolis, Minn. Iowa faces Minnesota at 7 p.m.