IU splits 2-game weekend in Illinois

In a tale of two matches this weekend, the IU volleyball team swept Northwestern on Friday and fell to Illinois the next day, winning only one set.

“With Northwestern, we attacked them really well and played to our game plan,” IU Coach Sherry Dunbar said. “Illinois changed their lineup a little bit. I think they’re trying to find something that works for them, and we didn’t have the best matchups against them.”

Indiana (11-15, 3-11) started its four-game road trip going 1-1 in the Prairie State, defeating Northwestern (15-10, 4-10) and falling to Illinois (11-13, 5-9).

“We really did some good things against Northwestern and fought really hard,” junior outside-hitter Jordan Haverly said. “We didn’t find a way to bring that same determination and fight to the match tonight.”

The Hoosiers swept the Wildcats for their third conference win of the season (25-20, 25-14, 25-23). The victory gave the Hoosiers their first sweep of a conference opponent in 33 Big Ten matches.

Northwestern standout Stephanie Holthus averaged 5.25 kills per set against the Hoosiers on Sept. 29, leading her team to the four-set victory in Bloomington.

This time the Hoosiers kept Holthus to a 2.67 kills per set average and didn’t allow a single Wildcat to get double-digit kills.
Haverly had a match-high 15 kills, and senior right-side hitter Kelci Marschall contributed 12 kills.

“We had really aggressive serving when we were there,” Haverly said. “And we had some really good defense, and we got them out of their system.”

The second set saw the Wildcats score 14 points, the least amount of points the Hoosiers had given up to a conference opponent all season.

“I think they got rattled,” Dunbar said. “I don’t think they were ready for us and expected us to play with that type of emotion.”

Seniors Marschall, mid-blocker Samantha Thrower and setter Whitney Granado picked up their first win against the Wildcats of their career.

“We all wanted to work really hard to get them a win in that match,” Haverly said.

The next day the Hoosiers took the bus to Champaign, Ill., to play the Fighting Illini. IU had 31 hitting errors and never got on track in Huff Hall.

After falling behind in a 2-0 set deficit, the Hoosiers claimed the third set and were up 10-8 in the fourth set.

At that point the Illini went on a tear, outscoring Indiana 17-8 the rest of the set to hand IU its 15th loss of the season.

“Illinois was just hammering balls out there and really swinging to kill balls,” Dunbar said. “And I think on our side our passing broke down a little bit.”

Thrower said the Illini didn’t turn up their game, but the Hoosiers failed to
execute.

“It was mostly on our part,” Thrower said. “I think it’s just keeping that level of play. They stepped up in the fourth set, and we need to keep the level of play we know we can play.”