IU finishes home tourney 2-1

The Taylor/TIS Tournament was held in Bloomington this weekend bringing excitement to the over-heated University Arena leading to affectionate nicknames for the arena like "The Sweat Box," "The Inferno," or simply, the "Sauna."\nThe first match of the tournament pitted the Hoosiers against Dayton on Friday. The match was hard fought, along with an unbelievable Dayton comeback in the fifth game that left spectators with wide-eyes and jaws dropped.\nDuring the first game of the match the Hoosiers began the night with an impressive 22-12 lead over the Flyers. Dayton tried to mount a comeback, but passing by sophomore setter Victoria Zimmerman and crushing kills put down Dayton in the first game to a final score of 30-20. The second game had the Flyers and Hoosiers trading off rallies to a 15-15 tie until Dayton broke out with a 9-1 run to a 24-16 Flyers lead that all but ended the game. However, the Hoosiers would go out kicking and screaming as they put together a 9-2 run that brought them within 2 points of Dayton until the Flyers finally sealed the victory 30-27. Games three and four were back and forth battles with IU winning the third game 30-26 and Dayton winning the fourth 30-26 tying the match at 2 games apiece.\nThen insanity began. IU began game five with a 8-1 lead in a 15 point game that seemed to all but win the match. The Hoosiers couldn't hold onto their seven point lead as Dayton battled to a 9-2 run that tied the game. The Flyers never looked back, winning the fifth game 15-12 and breaking the Hoosiers' 3 game winning streak 3-2. Spectators were awestruck by the outcome.\nEven Dayton coach Pete Hoyer was surprised by the outcome. \n"I think we played ugly volleyball, we got outplayed in virtually every statistic, but we scrapped," Hoyer said.\nWhile the loss surprised junior Nikki Hill, she saw a reason for it, "It comes down to mental toughness and I can't really add any more than that." \nDespite the loss, Hill looked at the match as more of a building block, "It's one of the things that you put behind you, but you want to remember it so it will never happen again."\nThe Hoosiers began to put the loss behind them Saturday when they defeated both the Evansville and Cal State Fullerton 3-0 in both matches. \nThe Hoosiers' play against Evansville ended the match against the Purple Aces before it even started. IU made extremely short work of Evansville by sweeping all three games of the match 30-19, 30-21, and 30-19 respectively. \nTeam dissent for the Evansville match was to "wash their hands" of the previous loss against Dayton.\n"There was a certain fire, they came out in game one wanting to put away last night and start anew," coach Katie Weismiller said.\nIU's final match against Cal State Fullerton brought excitement to the heated arena. IU mashed the accelerator in the first game of the Cal State match, manhandling the Titans to a 21-15 lead only to see Cal State had a bit of "horsepower" of their own. The Titans answered with a 9-2 run tying them with the Hoosiers at 26, leading to a tense back and forth battle to a 31-29 Hoosier victory.\nAfter such a tense first game, neither of the teams let up as the second game was a hard fought battle until the Hoosiers finally won 30-24. Both of the first wins were aided by impressive serving with sophomore Katie Pollom, sophomore Christina Archibald, sophomore Victoria Zimmerman and Hill all logging two service aces a piece. Game three was even harder on IU as Cal State proceeded to "hang around" by three points or less for the entire game. The Hoosiers eventually overcame the battle 30-26.\nOverall, the team seemed pleased with their play and effort within the game. \n"I think our effort has really improved. We are diving for balls even when we might not even have a legitimate chance to reach them. Our goal is to come and play to our potential and for the most part we did that tonight," Junior Melissa Brewer said.\nThe Flyers were named tournament champions, winning all three of their matches. The all tournament team included Dayton's senior middle blocker Susan Westbrock and junior outside hitter Erin Treadway, who was also named the tournament MVP, along with Cal State Fullerton's senior setter Kim Levey and sophomore outside hitter Lauren Goins. Archibald and Pollom represented Hoosiers on the all tournament team.\nThe tournament may have snapped the Hoosiers' three game winning streak, but the team has begun anew. "We've just started another winning streak," Brewer said. "I hope that this week in practice we can go out there and work really hard"