IU welcomes IPFW to town

"Back Home Again in Indiana" could not have sounded sweeter to the IU women's volleyball team as they returned to Bloomington Monday from a 900-mile road trip to the Lone Star State for the Texas-Arlington Invitational. \nAfter less than a day of rest, the Hoosiers will host the Mastodons of IU-Purdue University Fort Wayne Tuesday evening at University Gymnasium. IPFW, which compiled a 22-10 record last year, is 5-2 this season coming off a sweep of the Wisconsin-Green Bay Invitational which extended its current win streak to four. The Hoosiers will look to rebound after finishing second in consecutive tournaments the last two weekends.\n"We are happy to be back home; it was a long trip," IU coach Katie Weismiller said. "We'll take Monday and look at some film and hope to come out playing more consistent and executing on Tuesday." \nConsistency was one aspect of their game the Hoosiers lacked in the three matches in Arlington, Texas. After rolling over University of Arkansas at Little Rock and University of Houston with back-to-back 3-1 victories, IU hit a roadblock in the Mavericks of the University of Texas-Arlington. \nThe Hoosiers were slammed 30-16 in the first game of their final match Saturday night and would never recover, losing 3 games to none. While Arkansas at Little Rock and Houston managed to only hit a combined .150 against IU, the Mavs rocked the Hoosiers for a .341 hitting percentage. This hard hitting, combined with numerous unforced errors were too much for IU to handle. \n"We are going to need to improve defensively," senior Katie Pollom said. "We are going to have to do the little things that it takes to win matches."\nPollom was one of the many bright spots the team will try to build on Tuesday, leading the Hoosiers in the first match of the Invitational against Houston with 15 kills, 2 blocks and a .364 hitting percentage. Sophomore Tasha Arsenych had a career high 55 assists and freshman Christine Nilles added 18 digs, also career highs. Freshman Lauren Ditteon also continued to be a contributor for the Hoosiers, adding 11 kills and a .435 hitting percentage in the effort against UT-Arlington. \nIU goes into Tuesday night's match without much playing experience against the 'Dons. The two interstate squads have faced each other only once since the inception of both programs and many of the current players were not even born for that match, held in 1979.\nA win would give IU its first 6-2 start since 2002 -- a year they reached the NCAA tournament. The match will be one of the last opportunities for the Hoosiers to perfect their game for Big Ten play. Following Tuesday evening's match and the T.I.S. Bookstore Invitational this weekend, the Hoosiers will open conference play Tuesday, Sept. 22 at West Lafayette against in-state rival Purdue. \n"It's important for us to play excited," Ditteon said. "We need to come out as a team -- ready to go."\n-- Contact staff writer Kevin Dwire at kdwire@indiana.edu.