Hawkeyes Top Chanticleers, Win 6th-Straight

Sept. 18, 2015

Box Score

IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa volleyball team won its sixth-straight match with a 3-0 victory over Coastal Carolina on Friday night on Mediacom Court in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The win streak is the longest for the program since 2011.

With the win, the Hawkeye improve to 8-3 on the season, while Coastal Carolina falls to 7-3.

“I thought we had great team contribution and tons of balance from all of our offensive weapons,” said UI head coach Bond Shymansky. “Ashley Mariani was on fire and Jess Janota did it again. Then you add Mikaela Gunderson, Lauren Brobst and Reagan Davey. That depth is going to be important for us heading into a doubleheader tomorrow.”

The Hawkeyes came out swinging in the first set, recording a .303 attack percentage with 17 kills. After a back-and-forth battle to start the set, the Hawkeyes used a 5-1 run to gain a lead. Kills by Mariani (2) and Davey (2) aided the rally. The Chanticleers made a run late, but the Hawkeyes held on for the 25-23 set-one victory.

Down 14-15 in set two, the Hawkeyes used a five-point swing to take a 19-15 lead. Freshman Molly Kelly served up the run, while Gunderson (2) and Brobst (2) each added kills. They never lost the lead from there, taking the second set, 25-19.

Iowa had the early momentum in the third set, getting out to a 15-5 lead. Coastal Carolina fought back, coming with two points of the Hawkeyes, but it wasn’t enough to halt the Iowa offensive attack (25-19) Brobst had the hot hand, recording six kills and a .308 attack percentage, while junior Loxley Keala dished out 14 assists.

Three Hawkeyes reached double digits in kills for the Hawkeyes. Brobst led the way with 13, Mariani added a season-high 11, and Gunderson added 10. Sophomore Annika Olsen paced the Hawkeye defense with 16 digs, while freshman Molly Kelly and Davey added 10 apiece. Keala and Gunderson each added four blocks.

“We need to stay strong mentally and perform physically tomorrow so we can get out of here with two wins,” Shymansky said. “Going into conference play with 10 wins would be ginormous, especially with really quality wins.

“We played a stacked nonconference and I think people thought I was nuts for doing it, but I knew what we had. I knew we were up to the challenge.”

The Hawkeyes wrap-up their nonconference schedule tomorrow, hosting Coastal Carolina at 11:30 a.m. (CT) and Drake at 3:30 p.m.