Volleyball team drops two home games

Closing out sets has been the biggest problem for the IU volleyball team (8-9). The team dropped two home games over the weekend, falling to Northwestern on Friday (25-18, 22-25, 24-26, 25-15, 15-8) and losing to Illinois on Saturday (25-22, 25-23, 25-20).

“We need to find a way to play strong from the beginning,” sophomore middle/outside hitter Chante George said. “We’re really good at catching up and fighting, but if we can get that at the beginning, we will have so much more momentum.”

Against the Wildcats (11-7, 3-3), the Hoosiers battled to take a two sets to one lead after being down in the third set.

However, Northwestern fought back and was able to take the final two sets to seal the victory.

“We killed ourselves in those two sets,” IU Coach Sherry Dunbar said. “We made a ton of errors.”

Sophomore middle blocker Awele Nwaeze and George led IU. Each had 13 kills.
Sophomore outside hitter Amelia Anderson added 11 kills, and junior middle blocker Morgan Leach had 10.

Senior defensive specialist Caitlin Hansen led the team in digs with 20, and freshman setter Megan Tallman led the Hoosiers in assists with 53.

“We tend to feed off of each other, which is both a blessing and a curse,” Nwaeze said. “Everyone plays well when others are playing well, but if one person has an off time, it kind of travels like the plague.”

Northwestern senior Stephanie Holthus led the Wildcats with 14 kills. Freshman Caleigh Ryan had 48 assists to lead the Wildcats, and sophomore Caroline Niedospial had 13 digs to lead the team.

On Saturday against Illinois (7-9, 3-3), IU fell in yet another close match. Each set saw the Hoosiers battle but come up just short in the end.

“They had six errors on the night, and we had 27,” Dunbar said. “You can’t win like that. The production is there, but we have to have the confidence to limit the errors and find ways to play a cleaner game.”

George and senior outside hitter Jordan Haverly led IU, each with 11 kills. Nwaeze also added 10 kills. Hansen led the team in digs with 15, while sophomore setter Katie Gallagher led the Hoosiers with 28 assists.

“I thought Chante was really good,” Dunbar said. “She hit 0.444 and has consistently in the last few matches.”

The Hoosiers will have to grind out the next week as they prepare for more tough matchups. They have their first of four consecutive away matches Friday against No. 7 Nebraska.

“We are getting closer with a lot of very good teams, and that’s just making us more hungry to get over that hump and be able to beat teams like Northwestern, Illinois and Ohio State,” Nwaeze said.

“We’re really good this year, and we have a lot of talent, and I feel like those extra reps outside of practice and that mentality and thinking about it constantly is what’s going to drive us over the hump so that we can win.”

Follow reporter Andrew Vailliencourt on Twitter @AndrewVcourt.