Huskers Down Hawkeyes in Pink Match

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Oct. 17, 2012

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IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa volleyball team fell in straight sets to fourth-ranked Nebraska on Wednesday night (22-25, 14-25, 9-25). The match, Iowa’s annual Breast Cancer Awareness — Attacking Breast Cancer Night, was played on Mediacom Court at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in front of a crowd of 1,719, the 10th largest in program history.

The win improves the Huskers’ record to 16-2 overall and 8-1 in Big Ten play; the Hawkeyes fall to 10-12 and 2-7 in league action. Iowa led the first set, 19-14, before Nebraska scored 11 of the final 14 points to win the opening frame.

“We had a great crowd,” said head coach Sharon Dingman. “It was a disappointing finish. Nebraska pushed us around in the last two sets.”

Rachael Bedell notched a match-best 14 kills. The junior has posted double-digit kills in each of the last five conference matches.

“Rachael played well tonight,” said Dingman. “That was really nice to see her have that kind of match.”

Nikki Dailey turned in her team leading 15th double-double of the season, recording 26 assists and a team-best 13 digs. The junior has registered six double-doubles during Big Ten action. Dailey eclipses her season total from a year ago when she posted 14 double-doubles. Classmate Bethany Yeager added 11 digs.

Trailing 7-6 in the opening set, the Hawkeyes used a 4-1 run to grab a 10-8 lead and force a Nebraska timeout. Iowa extended its lead to four at 14-10. The Hawkeyes’ advantage remained at four or more until the Huskers used a three-point run trailing 20-16 to cut the score to 20-19. Nebraska utilized a 6-2 run to rally and claim the frame, 25-22. The Hawkeyes out-hit the Huskers in the first set, .170 to .143. Bedell (six kills), Dailey (15 assists) and Yeager (nine digs) all turned in set-highs.

The visitors hit .483 in the second frame en route to a 25-14 set victory and a 2-0 match lead. The Huskers limited Iowa to a .179 attack percentage. For the second time in as many games, Bedell paced all with seven kills.

Following the intermission, Nebraska ran out to a 13-6 lead and never looked back, finishing on a 12-3 run to win the set, 25-9, and the match, 3-0. The Huskers hit .407 in the final frame, while limiting the Hawkeyes to a -.097 hitting percentage.

“We couldn’t find a way to push back against them,” said Yeager. “We started strong. After the first set, we were not clicking.”

Iowa returns to action on Sunday when it travels to Northwestern. The Hawkeyes and Wildcats will square off at 2 p.m. inside Welsh-Ryan Arena. The match can be seen live on BTN. Iowa returns home to host top-ranked Penn State next Wednesday at 7 p.m. The contest can also be seen live on BTN.