CORALVILLE, Iowa – University of Iowa volleyball fell to No. 11 Purdue, 3-1, Saturday afternoon in Xtream Arena.
The Hawkeyes were led by senior Amiya Jones who matched her career-high kills with 17 and junior Delaney McSweeney who hit at a clip of .615. The Hawkeyes out served Purdue with six aces to its four. Setters Lilly Tessier and Bailey Ortega led the team with 21 and 19 assists, respectively.
HOW IT HAPPENED
SET 1 (Purdue, 29-27): Iowa opened the match with a big kill from McSweeney. From there it was back-and-forth between the Hawkeyes and the Boilermakers. Neither team had a lead bigger than one until Iowa got a two point lead, 11-9, thanks to an ace from sophomore Toyosi Onabanjo and a kill from Jones. Purdue went on to score three straight to retake the lead, 12-11. From there, both teams were exchanging points in twos. The Hawkeyes had the, 15-14, lead at the first media timeout. The Boilermakers came out of the timeout hot and scored four straight to take an 18-16 lead. Another Hawkeye ace off the hand of Tessier tied it at 18 all. Iowa took a timeout with the Purdue lead at three, the biggest lead of the set thus far. The Boilermakers got to set point, but back-to-back kills from Jones got the Hawkeyes within one and Purdue took a timeout. A big block from Jones and sophomore Michelle Urquhart tied the set at 24. Iowa had a successful challenge on a net violation by Purdue to extend the set. A kill by sophomore Addie VanderWeide and an attack error by Purdue brought the score to 27-26, Iowa. After a Purdue timeout, the Hawkeyes had an unsuccessful challenge which kept the score at 28-27, Purdue. The Boilermakers then went on to close out the marathon set with a victory.
SET 2 (Iowa, 25-19): Purdue took an early 5-1 lead in the second set. A kill from Onabanjo ended the Boilermaker run. Timely kills from the Hawkeyes kept it within reaching distance. Purdue was able to extend their lead to six with the score at 12-6. Iowa went on to score five straight to get within one and Purdue took their first timeout with their lead at 12-11. The Hawkeyes took their first lead of the game after a 7-0 run came to an end with the score at 13-12. It then was a back-and-forth affair between the two teams with three lead changes. Iowa took their first timeout down three, 18-15. The Hawkeyes took the lead again, 20-18, after a 5-0 run and Purdue took a timeout. Another run by Iowa got it to set point. An ace from Jones secured the set victory for Iowa.
SET 3 (Purdue, 25-16): The third set opened evenly matched between the two teams. The Hawkeyes were able to tie it multiple times in the opening part of the set with an ace from Urquhart, a kill by senior Edina Schmidt, and an ace by VanderWeide. Three-straight points gave Iowa their first lead of the set, 11-10. At the media timeout the Boilermakers had the 15-12 lead. Purdue started to take control of the set after a 4-0 run that gave them the, 17-13, lead. The Hawkeyes took their second timeout of the set with Purdue up five. Another 4-0 run by the Boilermakers extended their lead to seven. Purdue recorded back-to-back kills to take the third set, 25-16.
SET 4 (Purdue, 25-18): The Boilermakers opened the set with three-straight points to take the early lead. Iowa responded with a 3-0 run of their own to tie it up. The two teams exchanged back-and-forth kills to tie it at five. Purdue went on to score four straight to take the lead, 10-7, and Iowa took their first timeout. After the timeout, the Hawkeyes went on a 3-0 run to tie the set at 11. The Boilermakers answered again with three straight and forced the Hawkeyes to take their second timeout. A 4-0 run from Purdue extended their lead to six. Back-to-back kills from Jones and VanderWeide got the score to 22-16. A kill for Purdue secured the match victory.
HEAR FROM HEAD COACH JIM BARNES
“I love how we battled in set one, we had chances to win. I love how we rebounded and were able to attack them in the second set. We have the team here to be able to beat a ranked opponent, we just need to be able to execute better.”
HEAR FROM AMIYA JONES
“We need to be able to capitalize off every point, every kill, every block here on out. If we want to be able to finish on the top half of the Big Ten, we need to make sure that we can take these teams down like we know we can.”
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes will travel to Bloomington, Indiana, on Wednesday, Sept. 28 for their first Big Ten road match up. They will take on the Hoosiers at 6 p.m. CT in Wilkinson Hall on the University of Indiana campus. The game will be televised on the B1G Network.
