Weekend sweep boosts Volleyball's Big Ten chances

A stats sheet is a notorious liar. Often its ingredients -- kills, blocks, hitting percentage -- are worth little more than a toss to a trashcan.\nBut anyone keeping tallies of the volleyball team's contests this weekend in an effort to uncover the most tell-tale statistics likely ran out of ink; circling and underlining numbers, which, in this case, told no lies. Instead, the black and white slip of paper turned into the IU volleyball bible for a couple nights in a row.\nThe Hoosiers (12-6, 3-5) used gutsy, consistent play and a solid week of practice to snap a five-game losing streak and turn around their Big Ten season in a heartbeat, pounding Illinois and Purdue.\n"We've all known we have the potential and personnel to come out and win in the Big Ten," coach Katie Weismiller said. "We just hadn't been able to come out and put it together on the same night."\nUntil Friday and Saturday.\nFive Hoosiers registered double-digit kills in the 15-9, 15-11, 16-18, 15-7 win over the Illini (10-8 overall, 1-7 in Big Ten play). Senior outside hitter Amanda Welter dominated the middle, hammering 22 kills and keeping the Hoosiers emotionally charged with her usual fist-pumping and vocal outbursts.\nWhen Welter wasn't sending rockets toward the Illini, junior setter Laurie Gardner surprised Illinois by dumping balls in holes in the Illini defense.\nIllinois fended off five IU match points in game three, but the Hoosiers rattled off the first five points in game four to take command.\nSaturday's performance proved no different for IU, as three Hoosiers recorded 11 or more kills, in a dominating 15-3, 15-8, 15-10 thumping of the Boilermakers (9-11, 1-7) in front of a season-best 1,213 fans. The 0.328 hitting percentage for the match was the Hoosiers' second-best effort of the season.\n"What a great crowd," Weismiller said. "They set the tone for the night. They were really into it, and I think we picked up on that."\nIU's four-headed monster of Welter, sophomore Hillary Toivonen, and freshmen Nicole Hill and Melissa Brewer out-dueled both Illinois and Purdue's go-to hitters.\nIllinois and Purdue repeatedly relied on only two offensive threats apiece, but IU's option-laden offense and effective net play manhandled any threat.\n"(Illinois') Betsy Spicer hit a 0.500 against us last night, and we still won," Welter said. "We have so many different options, you can't just key on anyone."\nDefensive specialists junior Crecia Keithley and freshman Beth Heimann turned in solid, if not spectacular serving and passing efforts.\nKeithley fired a career-best four aces at the Boilers and another at the Illini. On more than one occasion, Keithley and Heimann came into the lineup and ignited IU scoring runs and forced Purdue's offense to scramble with their precision serves. The Boilers never scored more than two consecutive points all night, something Welter said IU set as a goal prior to the match.\n"Serving started it off," Brewer said. "If they can't pass, we know exactly what they're going to do. We just jumped on them and let them know how it was going to go the rest of the night."\nMatch note: Welter recorded her 1,000th career kill in game three against Purdue, becoming the seventh player in IU history to achieve the feat. Ryann Conners, a 2000 graduate, holds the all-time IU record with 1,533 career kills. Welter said she was unaware she was approaching the milestone.\n"I had no idea," she said. "My mom started to say something last night, but then she was like 'Oh, never mind.' But we played so well tonight, my teammates made it so easy"