Hoosiers hope to win on Senior Night

The three seniors on the IU volleyball team, middle blocker Samantha Thrower, setter Whitney Granado and right-side hitter Kelci Marschall will be honored Nov. 17 when the Hoosiers play Ohio State.

“It’s hard, it’s not something that I try to think about a lot,” Marschall said. “But I’ll be thinking about all the memories that I have here and how much I love my teammates and appreciate playing with them.”

IU and their seniors (12-16, 4-12) welcome No. 2 Penn State (25-2, 15-1) and No. 15 Ohio State (20-8, 11-5) this weekend into University Gym.

“This has been a long time coming, but it’s still pretty surreal that senior night is actually this Saturday,” Granado said. “I can’t admit to myself yet that it’s going to end yet.”

The maturation not only as players, but as people, is what makes the experience moving for IU Coach Sherry Dunbar.

“(The seniors) always look forward to it, but it’s sad,” Dunbar said. “Not just as players, but they’ve matured as young women.”

The Hoosiers kick off the weekend against the Big Ten leader, Penn State, Nov. 16. This marks the first of four straight matches against ranked opponents for IU.

The Hoosiers played the Nittany Lions earlier this season on Oct. 13 and lost in four sets.

IU is one of only six Big Ten teams to win a set against Penn State, and the Nittany Lions haven’t lost a set in their last three games.

Junior outside hitter Jordan Haverly ranks sixth in the Big Ten with a 3.93 kills-per-set average in conference games and said taking down the conference juggernaut won’t be easy, but it is feasible.

“If we play to our potential, we could make it interesting,” Haverly said. “I mean, it just depends on what we decide to do. We could if we all decided we wanted to.”

If Dunbar’s team wakes up Nov. 17 having upset the Nittany Lions, the key was likely being the aggressor, she said.

“You have to just go all out against a team like that,” Dunbar said. “You can’t play it safe.”

During Senior Night on Nov. 17, Ohio State will come into Bloomington hoping to spoil the festivities and beat IU for the second time this season.

The Buckeyes’ conference record is tied for third-best in the Big Ten, and they won six of their last seven matches heading into this weekend.

IU will have to contend with senior outside hitter Mari Hole. The UCLA transfer ranks second in the Big Ten with an average of 4.27 kills per set in conference games and was named Big Ten Player of the Week for last week’s performance.

The last time the two teams faced off was over a month ago, and since then the Hoosiers have grown in talent and experience, Marschall said.

“I think that we are really hitting our stride now,” Marschall said. “I think we’ve learned a lot about ourselves and how we work better and how we play better, and I think that’s helping us with our competition.”