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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports volleyball

IU swept by Ohio State, Penn State

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IU was tossed around in the first set against Penn State and lost 25-11.

“I think we let the name Penn State bother us,” IU Coach Sherry Dunbar-Kruzan said.

But in the second set, the Hoosiers were holding their own against the No. 7 Nittany Lions, winner of five of the last seven NCAA national championships.

But after a tight second set that featured 13 lead changes and four ties, Penn State ended on a run and took the second set 25-19.

Penn State (18-3, 6-2) would then win the third set and sweep IU (12-8, 3-5) on Saturday night for the win.

Friday, IU also lost to No. 22 Ohio State (14-6, 5-3), also in a three-set sweep.

The pair of weekend sweeps dropped the Hoosiers to 3-5 in the Big Ten.

Dunbar-Kruzan has said the goal of each weekend is to go 1-1, which would ideally give the Hoosiers a 10-10 conference record when the season concludes.

Because the Big Ten is widely regarded as the best volleyball conference in the country, a .500 record at the end of the year gives a team a good chance of making the NCAA Tournament.

If IU doesn’t make the NCAA tournament this season, the drought will be extended to four seasons without a tournament ?appearance.

The last time the Hoosiers went to the NCAA Tournament, they reached the program’s first-ever Sweet 16.

Dunbar-Kruzan has said this year’s team has the talent to go .500 in the Big Ten. But 20 games into the season, she added she still doesn’t think her team has played to its potential.

“We have to find a way to be individually more consistent,” she said.

Dunbar-Kruzan brought up the example of senior outside hitter Morgan Leach. The day the team played Ohio State, Dunbar-Kruzan said Leach was great.

Leach had a team-high 12 kills and hit the ball at a respectable rate of .308.

But against Penn State, the team’s lone senior ?struggled.

Leach finished with four kills, only the fourth most on the team, and a hitting percentage of .000.

“Morgan was awesome against Ohio State,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “And disappeared tonight.”

It’s that kind of consistency Dunbar-Kruzan’s been searching for from her team this season.

Junior outside hitter Amelia Anderson, who led both teams in the Penn State game with 11 kills, thought if IU had played its A-game, it could have given the Nittany Lions a closer game.

“I think we could have gone five (sets), or it’d have been a really, really good match,” Anderson said. “It just wasn’t in the cards ?tonight.”

Next weekend, IU will take a road trip to play the two Big Ten Illinois teams.

IU plays No. 15 Illinois on Friday and then will travel to Evanston, Ill., to play Northwestern on Saturday.

Historically, the Hoosiers have struggled against both teams. In the past 10 games against Northwestern, IU is just 1-9.

Its record against the Fighting Illini isn’t any ?better.

In the past 13 games against Illinois, the Hoosiers are just 1-12.

Until her team develops some consistency, Dunbar-Kruzan is stuck wondering which version of her team will show up.

“We are a little bit of a roller coaster,” Dunbar-Kruzan said. “In this league, it’s really hard to do that.”

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