Iowa Opens Tournament with Sweep of UAB

Sept. 6, 2014

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Box Score | Final Stats

TEMPE, Ariz. — University of Iowa volleyball opened Residence Inn Challenge action with a 3-0 sweep of UAB (2-4) Saturday afternoon. With the victory, the Hawkeyes improve to 3-1 on the season.

“Sometimes you have an up and down rollercoaster match, but today was a start up and slowly fade match,” head coach Bond Shymansky said. “Those are the kinds of things we need to work hard to eliminate inside our team mentality. We need to increase our intensity and focus as we go through the match.

“I thought we had a couple individual players that stepped forward and did well. But when someone is on fire, we need them to catch everyone else on fire. When we learn how to do that, I think we can be dominant. A 3-0 sweep is always a good thing no matter who you’re playing. It was good to see us finish it out.”

Iowa started the match with a 25-16 set one win, in which the team posted a dominant .480 hitting percentage while holding UAB to -.038. Alex Lovell paced the Hawkeye offense, recording five kills in the set, while Jess Janota and Alessandra Dietz contributed three kills apiece.

In the second set, Iowa used a run propelled by Danielle Cabel, Janota and Dietz kills and a Kaylee Smith service ace to jump ahead of the Blazers early, 4-0. The Hawkeyes never surrendered their advantage en route to their 25-21 win.

UAB led Iowa early in set three, but the Hawkeyes used a four-point run to pull ahead 12-10. A pair of Janota kills and an Alyssa Klostermann service ace fueled the drive. The teams continued to grapple throughout the set, which included 11 ties and six lead changes, but Iowa came out on top recording a 25-22 win to sweep the match.

“There we were in the third set down a few points and I liked how we stabilized, rallied and executed in that situation,” Shymansky said. “Those are good signs for us as a young program that’s still building its identity and still learning how to play with more error reduction and more terminal hitting.”

Lovell, who has reached double figures in kills in every match of the season so far, led Iowa with 11 kills. Mikaela Gunderson (.714) and Dietz (.571) posted hitting percentages above .500 in the match and recorded five and nine kills, respectively.

Klostermann dished out a team-most 20 assists and served up three aces, Michelle Fugarino recorded a team-high 11 digs, and Dietz led the blocking front with four.

Iowa continues Residence Inn Challenge play tonight with a 7 p.m. (CT) match against Idaho State. Live stats are available on the volleyball schedule page at hawkeyesports.com.