Hoosiers lose sixth straight

Time to rally.

That’s how IU’s Coach Sherry Dunbar described the mood of the team bus traveling home late Saturday night after getting swept by No. 1 Illinois and Northwestern.

“I had a great feeling going into (Northwestern), and I think the team did too, but I couldn’t have been more disappointed,” Dunbar said. “You think you have taken those little steps forward, and you think you are finally getting to that point, and a different team shows up.”

The weekend sweep extended the Hoosiers’ losing streak to six matches — the longest losing streak since 2009, when the team lost seven Big Ten matches from Oct. 18 to Nov. 6.

Friday night, the Hoosiers stepped into one of the rowdiest atmospheres the Big Ten has to offer — Illinois’s Huff Hall — and played the No. 1 Fighting Illini to four sets before losing 25-14 in the final set.

Junior Kelci Marschall led the team with 12 kills and graduate student Kristen Seaton added eight of her own.

Assisting Marschall and Seaton was senior Mary Chaudoin, who had 30 assists on the night.

“I was really happy with how we played going into the No. 1 team’s sold-out stadium,” Dunbar said. “That was the most we consistently fought in a match in a long, long time. We took a lot of steps forward that night.”

Freshman middle blocker Morgan Leach, a native of Champaign, Ill., returned home to play the Illini for the first time. She had a few rocky moments, but she put up six kills with a .235 average on the night.

Dunbar said the crowd was getting on Leach — even chanting “traitor” — when the freshman served, but Dunbar said she was proud of the way Leach responded to the raucous atmosphere.

“It was definitely a learning experience, and she will benefit from her first Big Ten road match being in her hometown,” Dunbar said. “She will be ready next time she goes back.”

After what Dunbar said was one of the Hoosiers’ best practices of the season early Saturday morning, the Hoosiers got swept in straight sets by Northwestern on Saturday.

The Wildcats went up early on the Hoosiers, winning the first set 25-10, and never lost control.

Offensively, Marschall and junior Samantha Thrower led with seven and six kills, respectively.

Although the team has showed spurts of great play, Dunbar said she does not know why the team has not been able to consistently bring the high level of practice into the games.

“There are a lot of individual inconsistencies,” Dunbar said. “When that light goes on, some people are not stepping up to that challenge, and they are not enjoying the challenge like they need to be at this level. The hunger is not there.”