Volleyball swept at Minnesota

Hopes of an upset by IU (8-4) against No. 9 Minnesota (13-1) were dashed early Wednesday night as the Golden Gophers swept the Hoosiers (25-14, 25-15, 25-18).

IU couldn’t get it going early as Minnesota held them to a hitting percentage of 0.2 in the first set, while the Gophers hit 0.457.

“It felt like a football game, and we were on defense the whole time,” IU Coach Sherry Dunbar said.

Minnesota kept pouring it on in the second set as IU only hit 0.088 and had eight errors.

The third set was much closer as IU played much better, but Minnesota went on a run at the end of the set sealing the victory and winning the last five points.

“I thought their outside hitters did a really good job finding ways to be really aggressive with their swings and get kills when they were out of their system,” Dunbar said.

A big problem the Hoosiers had is that they were not able to muster a single ace.

“That’s kind of a sense of pride for us,” Dunbar said. “We didn’t take a lot of risks.”

The Hoosiers were led by senior Jordan Haverly who had a team high 10 kills along with seven digs. Senior Caitlin Hansen had eight digs to lead the team, and freshman Megan Tallman had 14 assists, also a team high.

“Minnesota was really confident,” Haverly said. “They hit the ball really hard and were smart about where they were hitting it.”

Minnesota was led by senior Tori Dixon who had a team high 11 kills and hit 0.529 on the night. Ashley Wittman and Daly Santana both had eight digs to lead the Golden Gophers, and Alexandra Palmer had 32 assists, which led all players.

“(Dixon) is a first team All-American,” Dunbar said. “She is very good, and I thought she played very well tonight.”

There was a bright spot for the Hoosiers as sophomore Chante George recorded seven kills and hit 0.417.

“One player that really stepped up and did what we asked her to do was Chante,” Dunbar said. “We knew they were going to double and triple block Morgan and Awele, so we put some pressure on her to get some kills and she did.”

Follow reporter Andrew Vailliencourt on Twitter @AndrewVcourt.