Iowa Dominates Central Arkansas, Wins 4th in a Row

CORALVILLE, Iowa – University of Iowa volleyball extended its winning streak to four with a sweep of Central Arkansas on Sunday afternoon at Xtream Arena. The Hawkeyes matched their start from a season ago and improved to 10-3.

Iowa controlled the match, 25-12, 25-15, 25-14.

Hallie Steponaitis, Ksenija Tomic and Hannah Whittingstall each had nine kills to pace the offense. Whittingstall was efficient with her nine kills coming on 13 swings and without any errors. Liv Mogridge punished the Sugar Bears with seven kills from the middle. Setter Jenna Meitzler finished off her stellar weekend with 33 assists and set up Iowa’s attackers to hit .330.

Libero Henlee Moszkowicz held down the back row with 19 digs. She also had three aces and two assists. Defense specialists Allison Berent and Jaimie Marquardt recorded eight digs apiece and helped limit Central Arkansas to an .059 hitting percentage. Iowa’s block dominated with 11 on the afternoon, including a team-high five from Whittingstall.  

HEAR FROM COACH BARNES
“Each match, each set we are getting better. That’s what we wanted to see. We figured out a couple things this weekend. Going to three rotations for Ksenija really helped her out. Allison Berent was our player of the game. Everyone is upping their game in terms of executing what we are asking of them and we are trending in the right direction. One more nonconference awaits and all of this has been to get us ready for the Big Ten. I am proud of our team for how we approached this match mentally. We could have sleepwalked through it, but that doesn’t get us ready for the Big Ten. We played this match with great focus.”

MATCH SUMMARY
SET ONE (IOWA 25-12)
The Hawkeyes used middle attackers Liv Mogridge and Hannah Whittingstall to establish the pace of the match from the start. Mogridge punished the match’s first kill and Whittingstall got in on the action shortly after to give Iowa a 4-2 lead. By the time Iowa had its 10-6 lead, Mogridge and Whittingstall had tallied three kills apiece. Marichka Hoshylyk and Hallie Steponaitis each dealt an ace, as Iowa doubled up the Sugar Bears, 12-6. The Hawkeyes were able to side out flawlessly through the first set and did not allow a Central Arkansas run of any kind. A pair of Sugar Bear errors and two straight kills from Steponaitis ballooned Iowa’s lead to 21-9. Nikolija Bulatovic saw action in the first set and served an ace to give Iowa set point. Steponaitis would terminate her fourth kill to give Iowa the lead. Iowa hit a blistering .407 in the first and stifled the Sugar Bears’ attack, holding them to .129.

SET TWO (IOWA 25-15)
The Hawkeyes wasted no time establishing control, jumping out to another early lead. Ksenija Tomic and Carmel Vares joined in on the action, drilling a handful of kills to give Iowa a 6-2 lead. Kills from Whittingstall sandwiched a crafty setter kill from Jenna Meitzler and pushed Iowa’s lead to 8-4. The Hawkeyes led 15-7 at the technical timeout on a kill by Tomic. Iowa cruised to the set win with primary production coming from its pins Steponaitis, Tomic and Vares. Two errors from the Sugar Bears ended the set and gave Iowa the commanding 2-0 match lead. Steponaitis led the charge in set two with five kills.

SET THREE (IOWA 25-14)
After the Sugar Bears claimed an early 2-0 edge, the Hawkeyes quickly responded behind the arm of Tomic to knot the score at 3-3. The run grew to 7-1 on a nice serving stint from Jaimie Marquardt. Once Iowa gained the lead, it did not turn back, capitalizing on Central Arkansas errors and generating kills from Rosa Vesty and Whittingstall. Emily Lavin and Makena Rumple made their season debuts after the technical timeout. Bulatovic and Rumple held down the right side of the net with two blocks to move Iowa closer to match point. Another kill from Vesty set up match point, where Bulatovic found the floor with a second-contact kill. Central Arkansas hit -.143 in the third with just six kills and 11 errors.

Jenna Meitzler was named the tournament MVP. She finished with 120 assists and guided Iowa to a .269 hitting percentage. She added 11 kills on 24 attempts. Defensively, Meitzler had 21 digs and 15 blocks. Her 1.25 blocks per set were second only to Hannah Whittingstall’s 1.50. Whittingstall was the tournament’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player, helping hold opponents to a .154 hitting mark over the weekend. Her 18 total blocks and blocks per set led the team.

Pins Hallie Steponaitis and Ksenija Tomic were all tournament selections. Steponaitis led Iowa with 38 kills and 3.45 kills per set. She hit .260 and led the Hawkeyes in kills in all three matches. Steponaitis had 14 digs and five blocks. Tomic finished the weekend hitting .347 and providing firepower with 23 kills and 2.56 per set. She only made six errors in the three matches.

NOTABLES

• The Hawkeyes won despite not having any attacker reach double-digit kills.
• Iowa allowed the fewest kills by an opponent all season (29 – Army).
• Emily Lavin and Makena Rumple made their season debuts.
• Jenna Meitzler was the tournament MVP.
• Hannah Whittingstall earned the tournament’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player award.
• Hallie Steponaitis and Ksenija Tomic landed on Iowa’s all-tournament team.
• Iowa won the Kwik Star Klassic, sweeping Central Arkansas and defeating Texas Tech and West Florida.
• The four-match win streak is the longest of the season.
• The Hawkeyes got their fifth sweep.
• The Hawkeyes’ 10-3 record matches its start from 2025.

Up Next: Iowa (10-3) hosts its final nonconference match on Tuesday versus Milwaukee at 6 p.m.

KWIK STAR KLASSIC RESULTS
Friday, Sept. 18
Iowa def. West Florida, 3-2
Texas Tech def. Central Arkansas, 3-1
West Florida def. Texas Tech, 3-1

Saturday, Sept. 19
Iowa def. Texas Tech, 3-1
West Florida def. Central Arkansas, 3-1

Sunday, Sept. 20
Iowa def. Central Arkansas, 3-0

Records:
Iowa 3-0
West Florida 2-1
Texas Tech 1-2
Central Arkansas 0-3