IU's losing streak continues

The football team wasn't the only Hoosier sports squad to struggle against Michigan on Saturday.\nThe IU women's volleyball team lost two more conference games to Michigan State on Friday and Michigan on Saturday. The losses extended the Hoosiers' losing streak to 15 games and keeps the team in last place in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers now own a 1-15 Big Ten record and a 10-18 record overall.\n"We can't catch a break," IU coach Katie Weismiller said. "Michigan came in strong today after an upset against Purdue (Friday)."\nMichigan State swept the Hoosiers on Friday (20-30, 27-30, 22-30) to kick off the weekend, pushing IU's losing streak to 14 games. The win increased the Spartans' Big Ten record to 7-8 and 16-9 overall. \nThe game, which was televised on tape delay on Comcast SportsNet Chicago, featured the Spartans tallying more than double the Hoosier's kills (64-31). Sophomore outside hitter Erica Short's 12 kills led IU in the contest.\nThe Hoosiers were swept again Saturday against Michigan (20-30, 21-30, 28-30). Once again the Hoosiers were out-killed (60-40) by their opponents. Short led IU again with 12 kills, while freshman setter Allison Regas added 29 set assists and five kills.\n"I thought Allison did a great job getting her kills tonight," Short said. "She needs to do that more often."\nRegas notched four of her five kills in the third game against Michigan, but the team's defense was something she said needed work.\n"I think we need to work on our block setup," Regas said. "It would have helped our defense get more digs."\nWeismiller said the absence of sophomore outside hitter Emily Zulauf played a factor in the losses as she sat out the weekend with a foot injury.\n"Zulauf had a career night last time we played Michigan," Weismiller said. "We missed having a player that had a career night. She likes to play against Michigan."\nThe Hoosiers will try to snap the losing streak when the team travels to Illinois to face the Illini at 8 p.m. Friday and Northwestern at 7 p.m. Saturday. The team said it wants to step up its defense for next weekend.\n"I felt we could have dug some more balls tonight," Short said. "We couldn't channel our balls to our defensive players, but we will just have to come back in practice and work on it for next week."\nWeismiller agreed that practice this week will be important.\n"Last week, we had a strong practice," Weismiller said. "We worked hard, had some big swings at the ball and played defense. This week we have to come back"