IU looks to continue success following first Big Ten victory

IU will attempt to do something Friday it hasn’t in two years: win back-to-back Big Ten games.

Their most recent victory, Tuesday night against No. 17 Purdue, gave the Hoosiers their first conference win of the season. The victory gave the team more motivation, IU Coach Sherry Dunbar said.

“We’ve been waiting on this and been pushing so hard,” Dunbar said. “I think our offseason training will hopefully help us even more now as teams get tired. I think we’re going to keep going up.”

Indiana (9-12, 1-8) will travel north to Madison, Wis., to take on the Badgers (15-7, 3-6) at 8 p.m. Friday. The match will air live on Big Ten Network.

After picking up the victory against their archrival Purdue  on Tuesday, junior defensive specialist Caitlin Hansen said her team’s motivation has risen.

“I think it makes us even more hungry,” Hansen said. “We already knew we could win, we proved that to ourselves tonight. Now people are going to expect us to win and we’re going to expect ourselves to win.”

Hansen got the start at libero against Purdue, taking the spot back from freshman defensive specialist Courtney Harnish, and responded with a career-high 22 digs.

The Hoosiers will have to contend with Wisconsin’s libero Annemarie Hickey, who is second in the conference with 4.73 digs per set.

Despite having the conference runner-up in digs, Wisconsin’s defense rates ninth in the Big Ten in kills allowed, giving up 12.56 per set.

Comparatively, the Hoosiers rank sixth in the conference in that statistic, with an average of 12.25 kills allowed per set.

Wisconsin also allows the second most service aces per set in the conference, letting opponents ace them an average of 1.27 times per set.

Looking to exploit the Badgers weakness for defending aces will be junior outside hitter Jordan Haverly, who leads the team and is sixth in the Big Ten with an average of 0.33 service aces per set.

The team changed its training regimen this offseason, making it more intensive and giving the team an edge on the competition, Dunbar said.

“I think our offseason work was very, very hard and challenging,” Dunbar said. “I think that’s going to keep us in good shape, and I think we got a shot now to take this and bounce off of it a bit.”