Volleyball team wins Hoosier Classic

The IU volleyball team (8-1) took care of business this weekend by beating Wyoming, Tennessee State and UAB in the Hoosier Classic tournament in Bloomington.

Senior Jordan Haverly was named tournament MVP and was joined on the all-tournament team by sophomores Amelia Anderson and Katie Gallagher.

“I couldn’t do it without my teammates, and it’s really nice, especially in the last home tournament in my senior year,” Haverly said.

In the first match of the tournament, IU took on Wyoming (7-3) and won in four sets (25-17, 23-25, 25-21, 25-22). Anderson had a career high 21 kills and hit 0.457.

Senior Caitlin Hansen led the team in digs with 13, and Gallagher led the team in assists with 35. Redshirt sophomore Chante George had five blocks for the Hoosiers.

“Katie did phenomenal — so did Megan,” Anderson said. “Both the setters did amazing, and they really set us up for success.”

On Saturday, the Hoosiers faced the Tennessee Sate Tigers (1-5) and won (25-27, 25-15, 25-21, 25-14).

IU had four players with at least 12 kills: junior Morgan Leach with 16, Anderson with 14, Haverly with 13 and sophomore Awele Nwaeze with 12.

Hansen led the team with 18 digs, and Gallagher had 39 assists to go with 12 digs.
“We changed our mentality going into the next three sets,” Anderson said. “We really focused on what we could do better on our side — minimizing errors and really focusing on our communication.”

Tennessee State led for most of the first set before closing it out.

“Tennessee State came out on fire,” IU coach Sherry Dunbar said. “They were communicating. They were high energy. They’re a quick, very athletic team, and I just thought they utilized that to their advantage.”

Saturday night was the game that would decide the tournament winner with IU taking on the UAB Blazers (9-3). IU swept the Blazers (25-13, 26-24, 25-14).

Haverly had a team-high 13 digs to go with 12 kills and three aces, Anderson had a team-high 15 kills, and Gallagher had a team-high 25 assists.

The Hoosiers came out strong and made it look easy, despite the second set being close, and the feeling was that IU was always in control.

“Physically, we were more dominant,” Dunbar said. “Being able to pass, which was a huge key, and being able to get first-ball kills with all of our hitters, and I thought we distributed the ball really well. I thought we were more physical than they were at the net.”

Next weekend, the Hoosiers will head south and battle North Carolina and Duke in the ACC/Big Ten challenge. Following this, the Big Ten season will be underway.

“It’s really nice to have the record that we do going into the weekend,” Haverly said. “North Carolina is ranked in the top 25, so they’re really good, and Duke is always really good and feisty, too.”

Follow reporter Andrew Vailliencourt on Twitter @AndrewVcourt.